


by chance

by crossbelladonna



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pining, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU, colors yey, ok so like there's definitely angst, thats important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-04-01 09:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 61,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4014046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossbelladonna/pseuds/crossbelladonna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Iwaizumi Hajime meets Oikawa Tooru, suddenly everything bursts into color.<br/>The only problem is that for the other, it doesnt seem to happen the same way.</p><p>or</p><p>the world is black and white until you meet your soulmate au</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Haiiro

**Author's Note:**

> in which one who is Colorblind is put in a literal sense, ie. cannot see colors at all but black and white and gray
> 
> yes the title is from that song by JR Aquino  
> (8/8/15) [fanart](http://rainbowderpyarts.tumblr.com/post/126138916703/one-green-and-one-black-so-he-wont-ever-forget) by rainbowderpyarts.tumblr.com thank!!! *O*
> 
> EDIT: hello hello! this fic now has an Italian translation [here](http://www.efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3435714&i=1)! my many thanks to [Drie](http://an-oikawa-obsessed-fangirl.tumblr.com/) for the hard work! ^^

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It would be nice_ , Iwaizumi thinks to himself, patting the rough bench he’s sitting on. _To see the world in these beautiful colors with the one you love._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Haiiro** 灰色  
>  _Gray_

For Iwaizumi Hajime, he thinks that no other thing in this world is as beautiful to compare with seeing colors. Many things await you when people find out that you can see colors. For instance, there are a lot of occupational futures that present themselves, occupations that are keener to hire, keener to ignore those who are still Colorblind.

Most of all, being a Chrome—being able to see colors—would mean one thing:

_It means you’re paired._

You’ve found your soulmate, your eternal love, the one, and many other cliché connotations out there to signify that one is connected.

 _It would be nice_ , Iwaizumi thinks to himself, patting the rough bench he’s sitting on. _To see the world in these beautiful colors with the one you love._

***

 

He was seven years old when Oikawa Tooru came barreling into his life. He didn’t meet him immediately no. He heard of him first from his parents, over dinner as they talked animatedly about the darling child of their new neighbor. Iwaizumi blinked at them as they talked, bored as he pushed around his dinner.

It didn’t really matter whether it was delicious or anything since it looked a monotonous black and white like everything else, unlike his parents of course who see everything and can therefore relish in the different colors the earth has to show.

“The same age as you, Hajime!” his parents continued, his mother in particular, gushed.

Iwaizumi nodded then, forcing a smile on his face to please.

Every day at dinner they would give new and constant admirations to the mystery darling child and Iwaizumi’s resolve to finally meet this boy lessened each day though his curiosity was getting at him too, not that he’d ever admit it.

So he kept to himself, catching beetles in the woods in their backyard no matter how difficult it was to spy those black beetles against the even darker tree trunks but Iwaizumi pored over them anyway.

Until one predominantly rough day—having tripped at least twice and his knees all scraped (but Iwaizumi didn’t cry, no he didn’t at all!) and nearly falling off a tree after the beetle he wanted to catch flew off—Iwaizumi’s trudging back home when he heard a small gasp somewhere ahead and Iwaizumi doesn’t look up immediately, still inspecting one of his knees, it was bleeding, he only realized.

There’s a pattering of little feet, someone traipsing towards Iwaizumi in quick steps and Iwaizumi finally straightened up at the sudden intruder, a frown on his face.

The intruder was a little boy of his age, smaller than him too. Iwaizumi’s frown faltered quickly, because seeing this boy who looked in every sense, adorable with his soft curls and big eyes, wide in worry and slightly chubby cheeks—was exactly the opposite of Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi’s frown faltered too, because as he inhaled sharply, there’s a sudden haze of white and Iwaizumi blinked furiously to adjust to the sudden flash that was flooding his sight.

“Hey, are you okay? Your knee is bleeding,” Iwaizumi heard the boy ask and Iwaizumi’s eyes widened when the white haze finally subsided.

The boy looked different now. In fact, _everything_ looked different now and Iwaizumi couldn’t help but gasp once more, turning around to view the difference that he was sure wasn’t there earlier.

The sky! The trees! The leaves, and oh, even the ground! He took in everything with a delighted laugh. The sky looked very cool and comfortable with clouds, permanently white. Iwaizumi didn’t know what the color was called but it was easily the color he could dive into.

The tree trunks were the same color as the earth albeit a few shades lighter and the leaves! The same color as the grass that littered around though the fallen ones resembled the color of the tree trunks. It was exhilarating! And then—

Iwaizumi heard an annoyed huff and when he turned back around he sees the boy again who has not moved the entire time, the boy is pouting, his eyebrows pinched as though affronted.

“You aren’t listening to me! I asked if you’re okay!” The boy demanded but Iwaizumi was too busy looking at him and he can’t help but grin.

The boy in color looked even more charming than before. His eyes were a wonderful shade, the same color as the earth that Iwaizumi loved venturing and his curls were the same color too. Iwaizumi had no name for it but it was all delightful nevertheless.

The boy had pale, cream skin and his lips and cheeks were a different color that Iwaizumi can’t really put—

“You look really nice!” Iwaizumi couldn’t help but blurt out and that seemed to surprise the boy who now looked confused.

Iwaizumi tried taking a step towards the still unnamed boy and feels a sting, only then remembering of his wound and when he looks at his knee, ah there! A new color!

Against his dark skin, and trickling from the cut on his knee, the blood no longer looked black and dull but a different color. The same color as the boy’s lips and cheeks!

This was _really_ cool, Iwaizumi decided.

“Are you okay? What are you talking about?” The boy asked as though fearing that losing this small amount of blood has gotten into Iwaizumi’s head.

“Can you see all this?” Iwaizumi said brightly, not answering the boy’s question at all as he gestures his arms wide, pointing at the sky, the ground, the grass, the trees—

Now the other boy really suspected something had gone ticked Iwaizumi’s head as he looked more confused than ever.

“You’re not answering me! What am I supposed to be seeing?”

It’s Iwaizumi’s turn to huff, planting his hands on his hips.

“The colors! It’s amazing; I’ve never seen the sky look like that! The trees too! And the ground, I don’t know the name for it I should ask mom and dad—”

The other boy shook his head, perplexed.

“Colors?”

Iwaizumi was starting to get irritated. How was this stranger so slow? He pointed to the sky again, indignant now.

“Look! Look! It’s different! I wonder what happened but it looks way _awesome_ now!”

The other boy tilted his head, looking at the sky then back to Iwaizumi.

“Er, gray? Gray is not ‘awesome’ you’re not very bright,”

Iwaizumi puts his hand down, surprised.

“Huh? No, no, no it’s not gray! I swear, look at it clearly you’ll see white and then it’s different, it happened to me!”

The other boy tried again and then this time he giggled as he looked back at Iwaizumi.

“You’re very funny! I don’t see anything else! What do you mean it’s not gray?” he giggled again. “You’re Auntie Aiko’s son aren’t you? Since you’re in their backyard.”

Iwaizumi perked up when he heard his mother’s name but then frowned because the boy is stubborn. Surely he’s just pulling his leg when he said he doesn’t see the new color of the sky?

“I’m Oikawa Tooru!” The boy continued, smile very bright and showing his little white teeth. “I live next door!”

Iwaizumi only frowned deeper. So this was the mystery darling child.

“I-Iwaizumi…Hajime,” Iwaizumi introduced himself in a gruff grumble.

“Don’t frown so much, Iwa-chan! You don’t look nice that way,”

Iwaizumi stomps his foot, indignant at the nickname and the retort.

“It’s because you’re being stubborn! The sky isn’t gray at all! Even the tree trunks, look—” Iwaizumi demonstrated as he steps close to a tree trunk and pats it lightly.

Oikawa only giggled again.

“It doesn’t look any different to me, Iwa-chan, you’re very funny I should tell your mommy.”

“Hey!”

Oikawa gasped in delight and clapped his hands once, suddenly excited.

“Oh my gosh, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa suddenly moved in, grasping both Iwaizumi’s hands as his earth-colored eyes twinkled. “It’s the aliens! Ahhh, I knew they were real, they got you, Iwa-chan, oh nooo!”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. “Shut up, aliens aren’t real,” Iwaizumi said, walking off first, intending to go home and he heard Oikawa following him close by, still engrossed with the possibility of aliens.

 

It’s not until Iwaizumi got home and comes across his mother’s Book of Colors. It’s not until then that he finds out what it means to finally see colors, to be a Chrome instead of Colorblind, and Iwaizumi comes across three thoughts:

  1. Oikawa was his most probable pair, being that there was no one else around and the thought of it just sends him frowning,
  2. He’s going to have to tell his parents about it and they’d will most likely ask every question there was to be asked about the sequence of events before seeing Spectrum and would tire Iwaizumi to no end,
  3. Oikawa can’t see Spectrum despite being Iwaizumi’s probable pair and according to the book Iwaizumi read, Chromes are always paired so something must have gone terribly wrong and fate must have been harsh to Iwaizumi (what the seven-year-old thinks he did to get this kind of karma, he has no idea) and since for unpaired Chromes, the book states that they “will have to be interrogated to recall every person they’ve encountered the entire day to ensure a stable pairing” and it’s there that Iwaizumi decided he can’t have that ever; he’d rather go into hiding than be interrogated and asked several dizzying questions by Official-looking people.



So Iwaizumi, little seven-year-old Iwaizumi chooses the most practical thing a kid his age would do: he lies.

 

He lies to his parents after Oikawa told his mother about “Iwa-chan seeing things in the sky!” and concluded that yes, he did most probably saw it absentmindedly. He lies for fear of interrogation of a somehow failed pairing though he knows he’s going to regret this in a few years. He lies even though seeing the colors in his dinner, in the hallways of his house, his room even, made him want to gasp loudly in delight.

Mostly he lies too, because he wanted to know more about this probable pair of his, knowing that if he gets interrogated, Oikawa will too. Iwaizumi doesn’t have a lot of friends to begin with and Oikawa seemed to consider him as a friend now.

He doesn’t want to lose that either.

 

The next day, Iwaizumi lies again, complaining to his mother about his “terrible” vision and he apparently can’t see well anymore.

He gets contacts then, colored pitch black that are meant for Colorblind people and when Iwaizumi wears it, the world is back to a monotonous black and white and gray.

The day following, he removes one of them, leaving one of his eyes (green! he knows the color for it now) open. One to remember, and one so he won’t forget.

It was then perhaps that the neighbors had started calling him odd-eyed Hajime though it had made his father laugh and his mother smile and Iwaizumi never really minded at all.

 

***

 

Ten years forward and Oikawa still can’t see Spectrum. Iwaizumi never does find out why and he hasn’t told him anything either and he supposes he’s stupid for doing so but seeing Oikawa’s flirtatious perfect smile, soft brown curls ostentatiously styled, his warm brown eyes and that annoyingly stubborn attitude of his, Iwaizumi decides he doesn’t want trouble or at least, a scene.

Oikawa on the other hand, loves making a scene, as he’s doing now. He’s waving brightly, running up to Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi squints his green eye closed and opens it again, it’s a habit he does to remember black and white.

Oikawa’s breathing hard when he reaches the bench Iwaizumi’s sitting on and plops down hard beside him.

“I thought you said,” Iwaizumi says, slowly, emphasizing every word. “We will meet here at 5:30 because, wait let me quote you ‘We should go to school together on the first day! Now that we’re third years and all.’” Iwaizumi tries mimicking Oikawa’s voice rather poorly and Oikawa pouts immediately.

“I slept through my alarm, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa tells him sadly as he fixes his tie, groaning when he fails a few times.

Iwaizumi snorts and faces him, pulling on Oikawa’s tie so he moves closer and Iwaizumi focuses on the tangled black (dark red) necktie and proceeds to tie it properly.

“It’s already 6:15 did you know that? Jeez,” Iwaizumi tells him, pushing Oikawa back when he finishes tying and he stands, hoisting his bag up his shoulder.

“Let’s go, come on I don’t want to be late on the first day,” Iwaizumi presses on. Oikawa stretches his long legs instead and Iwaizumi makes a face, kicking Oikawa’s feet.

“Oi, Shittykawa are you listening—”

Oikawa stands up and sticks his tongue out at Iwaizumi.

“Early in the morning and you’re already nagging, Iwa-chan that’s not nice,”

“You’re the one who’s late I’m not going to be nice,” Iwaizumi says, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking on ahead.

Oikawa runs after him, as he always does, a teasing grin lighting his face.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, bending down slightly to Iwaizumi’s ear. Iwaizumi is faced yet again with the fact that Oikawa’s grown a few centimeters taller after all these years and Iwaizumi quite can’t get over it yet.

“What,” Iwaizumi grumpily as they’re about to cross the street, squinting at the slightly dark shade of gray (green) light turn into a lighter shade of gray (red).

“You shouldn’t frown so much anymore,” Oikawa teases as they cross, Oikawa waving at a few girls also on their way to school who greet him.

Iwaizumi grunts. “I don’t need you telling me off.”

Oikawa laughs, now walking ahead of him now and he looks over his shoulder to throw a grin at Iwaizumi.

“You’re going to end up Colorblind forever, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa chides playfully, humming all nonchalant as he walks on forward to the school gates.

Iwaizumi has stopped walking all of a sudden. And out of the blue, he’s staring at Oikawa’s moving figure, stepping farther and farther away from him.

Iwaizumi blinks, watches as Oikawa’s dark grey (sepia) curls, still soft as ever, bounces along with him as he walks. His off-white (cream) skin, a little darker (pink) on the elbows as it always is in the mornings.

_You have no idea._

Oikawa stops walking abruptly and turns around, a confused expression on his face that brings Iwaizumi to his senses.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to hurry, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa calls after him, giggling and Iwaizumi rolls his eyes and catches up to him.

Oikawa is still giggling even when they’re already side-by-side and Iwaizumi aims a jab at Oikawa’s side, making him squeal.

“Shut up, Oikawa.” Iwaizumi says, looking down as he watches the gray (and gray) pebbles on the ground with every step beside the man he’s supposedly going to end up with, not knowing that Iwaizumi is just right there beside him.

Fantastic.


	2. Chairo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa chuckles softly, hiding his face behind the papers as he looks over Iwaizumi whose posture is tight in concentration. He must already be stressing about this, knowing how Iwaizumi gets stressed easily and Oikawa feels slight bad. It’s is supposedly his job. Iwaizumi’s always the one looking after him too, might as well return the favor someday.
> 
> “If you see Spectrum before me,” Oikawa continues quietly and Iwaizumi looks at him underneath his lashes. Oikawa grins. “Do me a favor,” he says confidently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chairo** 茉色  
>  _Brown_

The Chromes and the Colorblind are placed apart in separate classrooms to everyone’s knowledge. It’s not some sort of discrimination whatsoever, Iwaizumi understands, as both parties have different ways of learning, what with their sight and all.

(Somehow, Iwaizumi isn’t troubled with either way.)

(He can’t bear to think he’d have to be separated with Oikawa in one case either.)

Iwaizumi and Oikawa pass by the Chrome classrooms on their way to their own class and they’re met with the usual black and white and grey (blue and brown and beige) of the hallways. It’s there too that they encounter several of their Chrome friends before they reach the corridor separating them.

“Yo!” Matsukawa pops out from one of the classrooms when he sees Iwaizumi and Oikawa pass by. He’s closely followed by Hanamaki who’s peering behind him.

Oikawa bounds for them enthusiastically.

“Mattsun, Makki!”

“Hey, so about the practice we have later…” Matsukawa goes and Oikawa explains the details, both of them are in conversation of their own despite of the fact that they can literally just talk about this during the break.

Iwaizumi blinks, his green eye closing longer by a second and he sees Hanamaki looking at him curiously, his gray (light brown) hair lighter from the sparse white (gold) sunlight coming in from the windows

“Did you get new contacts?” Hanamaki points to Iwaizumi’s left eye. He’s one of the few people who knows they’re contacts; other people just immediately assume Iwaizumi is naturally odd-eyed, much to his amusement.

That has Iwaizumi blinking self-consciously again and before he can speak Oikawa pipes up like he always does.

“It’s new, it’s new!” Oikawa exclaims, locking his arm around Iwaizumi’s, looking very proud. “I chose it too! See, see it’s a different shade now,” he points his finger annoyingly close to Iwaizumi’s eye and Iwaizumi smacks his hand away.

“Yeah, they get it.” Iwaizumi snaps.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa grin identically, glancing at each other once then to Iwaizumi and Oikawa and however short the glance was, Iwaizumi caught it nevertheless. They’re prone to doing that often and Iwaizumi wonders if it’s a pair thing.

“That’s perfect then, just in time for the Spec Test,” Hanamaki says, nonchalantly.

Iwaizumi stiffens. “Wait, Spectrum Test? I didn’t know that—”

Oikawa looks excited. He’s always anticipating the Spectrum Test.

“When is it? Ooooh, why is it so early, did you hear that, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa tugs his arm.

“Either today or sometime this week,” Matsukawa answers, shrugging. “Third years get more attention, see.”

Iwaizumi can practically visualize the several curses passing through his head. Spectrum tests are a hassle. It’s a series of tests gauging how close a person’s vision is to becoming Chrome. It’s all estimations and presumptions really and it’s not at all justifiable nonetheless it’s done routinely.

Iwaizumi hates it.

It makes him hate himself, sort of. Knowing that one thing that he could just reach out is still so close but still so far.

 

Oikawa disappears during break time, like always and Iwaizumi knows he’s somewhere out there in halls, humoring the girls always following him probably but Iwaizumi can’t bring himself to care. Ten years of this and it really shouldn’t matter.

At least for now it doesn’t matter because Hanamaki’s with him at the moment. He’s always lurking around the classroom during the break, usually with Matsukawa but since he isn’t around at the moment, he’s most probably here just to tease, what with the sly smile on his face as Iwaizumi looks over the new volleyball club applications.

(Oikawa’s job supposedly, but where is he at the moment? That’s right, Iwaizumi thinks.)

“So,” Hanamaki begins casually. He’s sitting in front of Iwaizumi’s desk, straddling the chair of the desk in front of Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi’s trying to ignore him really, knowing pretty well that if he goes along Hanamaki’s going to get him into some conspiracy.

“Hanamaki,” Iwaizumi mumbles, picking up another application and is pleasantly surprised to see Kindaichi’s name on it. “If you want to annoy someone you should go find Matsukawa. I bet he’s more than willing.”

“Pfft, I’m not here to annoy you, aren’t we friends?”

“Sure, we are.”

Hanamaki grins. “So…I have a question.”

Iwaizumi braces for it. “Go on,”

Hanamaki taps his fingers on the table in thought and he doesn’t reply for a few more seconds so Iwaizumi gets back to checking and noting the applications. He’s pleased once more when he sees Kunimi’s name and he’s writing a note on it when Hanamaki speaks again and Iwaizumi almost misspells a kanji.

“Are you going to wallow in that man-pain of yours until Oikawa sees Spectrum?”

Iwaizumi’s hand _almost_ slips, his pen nearly messing up a radical in Kunimi’s name.

“What the hell are you talking about Hanamaki?” Iwaizumi demands, not looking away from the paper determinedly. Iwaizumi knows how good Hanamaki is with deduction but damn they’ve been friends for two years now, he couldn’t just say he realized Iwaizumi’s secret out of the blue.

But Hanamaki is waving a hand flippantly, chuckling.

“I’m just saying—you like catching things meant for him, like those applications. He’s the captain isn’t he?”

 _Oh._ Iwaizumi grumbles.

“Well you know him. I tell him off and he says sorry and then he’s going to do it again. There’s no point in fighting it.”

Hanamaki taps his chin in thought.

“Hmm.”

Iwaizumi clicks his tongue.

“What? Stop looking like that.”

Hanamaki grins. “Like what?”

Iwaizumi sets Kunimi’s application aside with more force than necessary.

“That you’re assuming something. Whatever it is you’re doing,” Iwaizumi squints at the next application. Annoyingly, the handwriting is a lighter gray (red) and Iwaizumi’s sighs, sure that there was a note to use black pen so it’s easier to read.

“Why are you so antsy?” Hanamaki wants to know.

Iwaizumi doesn’t say a word, focuses on the papers in front of him more than anything. He _has_ been quite antsy all morning and into the afternoon knowing the Test is somewhere ahead.

The first day of class is supposed to be welcoming. It doesn’t feel welcoming at all.

“It’s because of the test isn’t it?” Hanamaki takes a guess.

“Hmm.”

“Are you like Oikawa too?” Hanamaki says, snorting. “Worried to be Colorblind forever? Hey—I know you get low scores in the tests but that’s fine—” He doesn’t sound really reassuring.

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, but Oikawa does,” Hanamaki grins.

Iwaizumi groans. He tells Oikawa—he’s _forced_ by Oikawa—to tell him the Spectrum Test scores he gets.

“I swear, I’m gonna slug him.” Iwaizumi threatens weakly.

Hanamaki laughs. “Oops, I’m not supposed to tell you it just _slipped_ in one of our conversations.”

“Very funny.”

“You’d have to remove your contacts too,” Hanamaki says unexpectedly. “That must be…hard.”

Iwaizumi, who’s twirling his pen in his hand, stills for a slight moment. What was that supposed to mean? Of course it was very hard Iwaizumi wasn’t much at lying too bad—

“I mean,” Hanamaki continues, clearly thinking aloud. “I get why Colorblinds want to see Spectrum so bad”

“Iwa-chan!” comes a familiar trill bounding towards them from the door. Iwaizumi closes his eyes while Hanamaki snickers.

Oikawa stops at Iwaizumi’s seat, bending over to see the papers on Iwaizumi’s desk and he’s suddenly so close, _so close_ Iwaizumi could turn and smack his nose on Oikawa’s cheek.

Iwaizumi backs away cautiously, hoping that Hanamaki wouldn’t be able to see the red blooming in Iwaizumi’s ears. Oikawa wouldn’t see them anyway but Hanamaki could and he’s staring at Iwaizumi at the moment.

Iwaizumi considers covering his ears for one wild second—

“Oh, are these applications?” Oikawa asks interestedly, grabbing Kindaichi’s and Kunimi’s. “Ohhh! It’s them, Iwa-chan, I knew they’d follow my footsteps someday…”

“You’re giving your workload to Iwaizumi again,” Hanamaki tells him, turning his gaze to Oikawa.

Oikawa jumps back, hands clapped together and a very practiced apologetic expression on his face.

“Iwa-chan, I’m so sorry, it’s just the girls they really—”

Iwaizumi rubs the back of his neck.

“It’s fine, forget it. I’m nearly done anyway.”

“I’ll take the rest then, Iwa-chan. Are they any good?”

Hanamaki hums. “We’ll find out later, won’t we?”

Oikawa winks at him.

“Oh yes. Hold on Makki, why are you here?”

Hanamaki makes a face.

“Am I not allowed to spend some quality time with my friends?”

That has Oikawa raising his eyebrows and Iwaizumi snorting. Whenever Hanamaki evades things he’s most probably in a midst of a quarrel with Matsukawa. Oikawa pats his back, none too consoling.

“You should go say sorry,” Oikawa says, chortling.

That’s the last straw for Hanamaki it seems because he huffs and stands up, rolling his eyes.

“To hell I am. He’s stuck with me, his problem.” Hanamaki asserts. He waves his hand flippantly and says, “You have lipstick on your cheek by the way,” before walking away.

Oikawa jumps, startled by the afterthought and his hand immediately goes to his cheek.

Iwaizumi’s surprised too and he’s looking at Oikawa immediately, squinting his black-colored eye closed and sees indeed the small pink mark on Oikawa’s other cheek.

“The other cheek, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi tells him helpfully, focusing with needless unwavering attention on the pen he’s holding.

Oikawa wipes it away, whining.

“Ahh, I knew she left a mark her lips were sticky…”

Iwaizumi looks away.

Jealousy is nasty. It’s threatening, overpowering and all Iwaizumi can do is look away, clench his fists and let it fly over his head as it leaves a vicious longing in his mouth since he can’t speak to oppose. He had no right to oppose.

He’s used to it, he reasons. Ten years and counting he has to get used to it, after all, Oikawa grew up to be everything everyone expected him to be—tall, beautiful, charming and Iwaizumi tells himself he’s used to it, all his flirtatiousness attracting people of different genders and sexualities and Oikawa loves the attention. He’s long wanted to see Spectrum hasn’t he? So Iwaizumi likes to believe he’s used to it.

But he’s not and it’s a slowly growing problem now that they’re third years, the age most people believe is the time many start seeing Spectrum.

Oikawa just _loves_ bringing that up too, like his wanting to do it now as he sits on the chair Hanamaki just vacated and takes the applications that Iwaizumi has done looking over.

“Hey, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa begins, perusing the papers in his hand lazily. “The Spec Test is this Thursday, apparently.”

Iwaizumi exhales. “Ah, you must be excited.”

Oikawa perks up. “Of course I am! Aren’t you?”

Iwaizumi snorts and Oikawa grins in understanding. Iwaizumi lets it go though when Oikawa settles on the chair, absently tracing through the marks Iwaizumi had written on the application form, an airy look on his face. The kind of look he gets when something good happens. The kind of look that, Iwaizumi remembers first seeing, at the mention of seeing colors. He knows after all that Oikawa is always, always wanting to broaden his horizons, always wanting to know more and Iwaizumi…well he was always there to let him fly.

“Hey, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says for the second time just as Iwaizumi starts writing again and he doesn’t look up.

“What is it, Shittykawa.”

Oikawa chuckles softly, hiding his face behind the papers as he looks over Iwaizumi whose posture is tight in concentration. He must already be stressing about this, knowing how Iwaizumi gets stressed easily and Oikawa feels slight bad. It’s supposedly his job. Iwaizumi’s always the one looking after him too, might as well return the favor someday.

“If you see Spectrum before me,” Oikawa continues quietly and Iwaizumi looks at him underneath his lashes. Oikawa grins. “Do me a favor,” he says confidently.

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow, trying to be indifferent despite his heart racing and guilt clogging up his throat.

Oikawa leans in closer and every time he does, Iwaizumi does his chance to squint his black eye longer than necessarily, taking in colored Oikawa quickly as though memorizing every inch of his gray (cream) skin, the dark (brown) freckles littering his face faintly, his long black eyelashes and then his dark (brown, brown _, brown_ ) hair and eyes.

“Can you describe me, please?” Oikawa asks, still grinning exuberantly.

Iwaizumi relaxes but his eyebrows pinches in confusion. Surely the girls following him around would be more than willing to do that?

Iwaizumi scratches his chin.

“I don’t understand?”

Oikawa leans back, cheeks puffing out indignant.

“Iwa-chan, what part of ‘describe me’ do you not understand?”

“I’m sure you already know what you look like…? Do you need a mirror…?”

“Nooo, nooo, I want you to describe me! In color!” Oikawa whines.

Iwaizumi cracks a smile. “Don’t your parents do that all the time?”

That has Oikawa turn slightly darker (pink) and he tries to revert the subject back on topic.

“Yes but well—”

“Then have them tell you, I’m having none of your shit in the future,”

“Oh come on, Iwa-chan, I want to know it from _your_ point of view,” Oikawa makes a dramatic sweeping gesture and he wiggles his eyebrows at Iwaizumi who looks on, unimpressed.

“You know what I think?” Iwaizumi starts, showing Oikawa a plastic smile that makes him frown.

Iwaizumi arranges the papers now, keeping them together and Oikawa watches each of his movements as he taps the papers on the table to level them. Then Iwaizumi reaches out and pinches Oikawa’s nose.

“Ow, ow—Iwa-chan—!”

Iwaizumi chuckles and lets go, satisfied.

“I think,” he continues. “It’s time for you to go to your seat. The bell just rung, now get on with it,” he shoos Oikawa with one hand and still pouting, Oikawa stands and pushes the chair back to the desk but he doesn’t leave Iwaizumi’s side.

Iwaizumi sighs. “Oikawa—”

Oikawa tugs at Iwaizumi’s sleeve.

“Come on, Iwa-chan, be nice, if _I_ see Spectrum first I will even describe you in full detail including the abs you worked hard for—”

Iwaizumi swats Oikawa, annoyed. Just thinking of Oikawa seeing Spectrum and not because of him makes the annoyance grow even more and he grits his teeth.

“You’re annoying go away.”

Oikawa’s smiling widely now, as though he’s finally caught Iwaizumi into his trap.

“But you’ll do it right? For me, right?” Oikawa insists, poking Iwaizumi’s side now and Iwaizumi jumps when it Oikawa’s fingers hits his waist and he looks up at the grin on his face, his own glare slowly fading.

Iwaizumi scoffs his assent, looking away.

That’s enough answer for Oikawa apparently because he’s laughing happily then just as their teacher walks in and when Oikawa goes off to his seat, Iwaizumi can’t help a smile of his own.

 

Their first volleyball practice of the new semester that afternoon has Oikawa showing off his captain privileges by poking around the lives of the new applicants as they’re warming up. They’re quite intimidated by the several questions that Iwaizumi has to step in once in a while but he supposes that’s Oikawa’s way of doing things.

After practice as usual, Oikawa’s the last one to shower and change and Iwaizumi waits for him outside, already spotting a number of girls waiting for Oikawa by the stairs and Iwaizumi sighs in disbelief, shaking his head and fully knows they’re going to be held back again.

True enough, when Iwaizumi and Oikawa comes down, they’re immediately surrounded by said squealing girls, surrounding Oikawa really and Iwaizumi steps back automatically, being used to all this mess.

Oikawa on the other hand, looks a little disoriented and he turns around looking for the familiar black hair.

“Iwa-chan—” Oikawa starts when he _does_ find Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi raises a hand, flippant.

“It’s fine, just get on with it,” Iwaizumi calls out to him, giving a smile. “I’ll wait for you at the gate.”

And with a wave of a hand, he’s off.

 

Iwaizumi waits by the gate as he said. He isn’t that shitty with promising and he doesn’t really favor going home alone though he’d never admit it out loud.

A few familiar faces pass by him as he waits and Iwaizumi nods and smiles at their greeting. Iwaizumi leans back on the gate wall, squinting as he looks at the setting horizon, all white and gray (yellow and gold) and Iwaizumi thinks Oikawa might not be released by that fangirling mob of his very soon. Iwaizumi could chuckle at the thought really, because long ago Oikawa didn’t blend in well with strangers. But then Iwaizumi supposes it depends on which crowd he’s mingling with.

Iwaizumi’s still looking at the setting sun, closing his green eye so he can look at it like every other Colorblind can when he hears a small “Oh!” that makes him blink confusedly.

Iwaizumi swerves his gaze around and sees a girl who’s just broken his attention from the sun.

The girl is looking at Iwaizumi as if she’s trying to remember and somehow Iwaizumi can recall her from class.

“Ah, you’re…um…,” Iwaizumi has always been bad with names and it just shows starkly at the moment. But then a bell rings in his head and he snaps his fingers, jubilant. “Ah! Ayano-san, is that right?”

Ayano chuckles, nodding. She’s really pretty. Her hair is the lightest gray (brown) Iwaizumi has ever seen, resembling Hanamaki’s. Her eyes are the same too and Iwaizumi assumes she’s Colorblind still, they’re in the same class after all.

“You’re Iwaizumi-kun,” Ayano says, almost shyly and Iwaizumi nods, smiling. “I sit a few seats ahead of you, actually.”

Iwaizumi didn’t know that. He doesn’t really pay attention much aside from the lessons it turns out.

“Oh, you’re new aren’t you?” Iwaizumi asks and that has Ayano nodding.

“Yes. I’ve made a few friends back there and when I saw you here I thought you looked familiar and oh, we _are_ in the same class,” Ayano chuckles again. Her laugh sounds like wind chimes.

Iwaizumi blinks, trying to get back his train of thought.

“Oh, yeah, yeah,” he says. _Very smart, Iwaizumi._

Ayano is staring at him intently now and Iwaizumi realizes she’s looking at his eyes. She then realizes Iwaizumi sees her staring and she blushes, smiling apologetically.

“I-I’m sorry, it’s just that I just noticed your eyes,” she says. “Your left eye looks lighter…or maybe I’m wrong?”

Iwaizumi shifts his weight from one side to the other, smiling nevertheless.

“Oh it’s really like that,” he tells her. He’s gone through this kind of conversation multiple times.

Ayano’s eyes widen and she looks more interested than ever.

“Wait, wait I know the name for that!” she says, tapping her foot and then exclaims brightly, “Heterochromia! Wow, I’ve never seen a person like that it’s interesting. Is it real?”

Iwaizumi’s about to say _No, it’s not, just trying to hide some kind of mishap in my life_ and that probably wouldn’t have been wise and Iwaizumi’s quite glad when he hears Oikawa’s voice cut in as soon as Ayano finishes her sentence.

“ _Iwa-chan~_ oh,” Oikawa glomps on him like usual, not even taking Ayano in account at first until he notices her. And then he smiles. That’s the smile reserved for girls and though usually charming, now looks practically more forced than pleasing.

“Hi!” Oikawa greets Ayano in his usual trill, all the while clinging into Iwaizumi’s arm meanwhile Iwaizumi tries to dutifully shrug him off.

Ayano is looking rather flustered at once, as most people react whenever Oikawa is in the picture and she struggles for words for a moment before settling to a simple, “Hello,”

“Were you having a nice talk?” Oikawa wants to know, tugging on Iwaizumi’s arm which Iwaizumi had unsuccessfully tried to pry from him.

“Yes we were,” Iwaizumi tells him. “Until you came along.”

Oikawa chuckles, focusing on Ayano this time and Oikawa coos, “Ohhh, I remember you! You’re the new one in class. I didn’t catch your name though,”

Ayano gapes and then looks down. Iwaizumi doesn’t need to squint to see her face lighting in a pink shade. Most probably because oh, the famous Oikawa remembered me! What a dream! Iwaizumi can’t blame her really.

“I-I’m Ayano Hotaru,” Ayano says, smiling.

Iwaizumi looks away knowing how disarming Oikawa’s next smile will be.

“Ah, Hotaru-chan, lovely to meet you!” Oikawa nudges Iwaizumi. “What were you talking about, Iwa-chan?”

“About how embarrassing you are,” Iwaizumi says.

Ayano chuckles at that.

“I was asking about Iwaizumi-kun’s eyes…it was a little rude of me,”

Iwaizumi shakes her head, waves it off.

“Oh it’s fine, I’m used to it.”

Oikawa grins. “You were asking if they’re real, am I right?”

Ayano looks surprised but she nods.

“Leave him be, he has problems with personal space.” Iwaizumi tells her and Ayano laughs.

Oikawa pouts. “Very mean! And I was about to say how pretty Iwa-chan’s eyes are~”

Iwaizumi narrows his eyes as Oikawa looks at Ayano again.

“They’re real by the way isn’t he _handsome_.”

“Gross.” Iwaizumi retorts quickly, feeling the need to cover his ears again.

Ayano smiles at their banter and bows just the slightest.

“Well, I have to go. It’s nice to meet you both!” Ayano says finally before waving at them and walking off to the other side of the road.

When she’s out of sight, Oikawa lets go of Iwaizumi and looks at him knowingly, a small smile on his face.

“So Iwa-chan,” Oikawa begins and that’s the cue for Iwaizumi to turn around and start walking off.

“Ah, Iwa-chan, wait wait!” Iwaizumi can hear Oikawa whining behind him and really, he can’t help it, it makes him smile.

 

It’s the day before the Test when it happens. It’s from their class too and it had just started out as a normal morning though there’s a noticeable empty seat a few seats ahead of him. But Iwaizumi didn’t question it, absences are normal in class.

There were no questions about it until Oikawa tells him during the break.

“Iwa-chan, did you know Hotaru-chan saw Spectrum a few days back?” Oikawa tells him and Iwaizumi almost chokes on his food.

“And then it’s too bad she didn’t catch who her pair is, it was in a crowd see! That’s probably why she isn’t here at the moment. Must be hard not knowing huh?” Oikawa says it so nonchalantly; oblivious to the fact that Iwaizumi’s heart feels as though it’s on a race.

Iwaizumi coughs, his appetite gone.

“Yeah, must be hard.” He says.

And his resolve hardens: to hell is he telling anyone ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oikawa likes embarrassing iwa-chan in front of pretty girls  
> from there on you can see me unveil my inner matsuhana trash  
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	3. Midori

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you know someone who needs the help?” Saeko eyes him curiously. Probably trying to figure out why he’s sweating all of a sudden and how stiff he’s sitting on his chair.  
> Iwaizumi thinks of Ayano Hotaru who had disappeared. Has she gotten help too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Midori** 緑  
>  _Green_

Ayano Hotaru never did come back again, turns out. Furthermore, the Spectrum Test has Iwaizumi in jitters by Thursday that he has to take deep breaths now and then, all ready to get his ass busted about being a Chrome for the past ten years.

He feels like this all the time whenever the Test is brought up and though an irrational feeling, Iwaizumi can’t stop it anyway.

Oikawa on the other hand, was still the same way. He’s obviously excited, telling Iwaizumi every few minutes about how _he’s_ sure he can see a bit of blue and green now and his soulmate just has to be nearby.

Huh, right.

There seems to be more girls flitting around him than usual, despite it being the first week of class and Iwaizumi supposes they’re hanging around just in case they look at Oikawa and everything will be colorized.

Iwaizumi can’t help but bitterly think, _Joke’s on them_.

(Or perhaps he’s just being grouchier than usual, he internalizes.)

 

The Test starts after lunch that day, Hanamaki and Matsukawa—in better terms now it seems—dropping by to give them teasing looks and waggling eyebrows before going off to their colored classrooms.

 

Watching them, Iwaizumi had started out envious at first, first years as they were and the two of them had introduced themselves as a pair, Iwaizumi couldn’t help but think: why did he have such bad karma?

But then that was years ago, Iwaizumi didn’t think much of it anymore. Not really anyway.

 

They’re called out alphabetically by surname, one by one being pulled out to class to get to the temporary Swatcher’s office—the test administrators.

 

Iwaizumi is one of the people in the second batch and on the way out of the room he diligently ignores Oikawa’s jealous stare, fixing his gaze on the door, focusing to get rid of the irritating nerves.

When Iwaizumi arrives at the Swatcher’s office though—just at the curb of the Chrome classrooms—his nerves settle when he sees the Swatcher.

“Um, hello, pardon the intrusion.” Iwaizumi says, unsure as he eyes the Swatcher carefully. The Swatcher’s a girl this time, obviously years older than he is, but smaller and what with her gray-colored (honey) hair, four studs in one ear, black sleeveless shirt she’s layered over with a white doctor’s coat that seems too long for her as it’s reached the back of her skinny-jeaned calves, her entire aura screams intimidating.

If it weren’t for the bright smile on her face or the way she ushers Iwaizumi in cheerily, Iwaizumi would have considered being excessively shy.

“Oh, hi! Hello,” the Swatcher says. “You’re Iwaizumi Hajime-kun? That’s right?” she looks at the clipboard she’s holding, presumably Iwaizumi’s file.

“Er, yes.” Iwaizumi says as he takes a seat facing the Swatch that’s blinking now.

“Hmm, I’m Tanaka Saeko,” the Swatcher says, flashing Iwaizumi another smile before walking over to the Swatch. “You don’t have to call me Doctor or anything; formalities are overrated these days,” she chuckles, walking around the room again to retrieve things Iwaizumi is familiar with though he doesn’t really know what it’s called—only that it’s for the machine sitting in front of him.

“Saeko-san then. You’re new?” Iwaizumi says.

Saeko grins, nodding. “Oh yes, just became a Swatcher a few months back be _cause_ …” Saeko walks over to the Swatch and pats it twice, making a face. “These things are really hard to manage huh? I didn’t really know it until I tried it. Oh well.”

Iwaizumi has to chuckle at the contempt in Saeko’s expression but he doesn’t say anything and he looks at his clasped fingers instead. He hears Saeko humming thoughtfully and Iwaizumi looks up curiously.

Saeko examines her fingernails nonchalantly.

“So, Iwaizumi-kun, what’s your prescription?” she says out of nowhere.

That confuses Iwaizumi for a good five seconds.

“My…what?”

Saeko smiles, points to her own left eye.

“Your contacts.”

 _The Swatcher this time has a good eye._ Iwaizumi remembers and he scratches the back of his neck, unsure really. He has never been asked this before.

“Eh, I’m not really sure myself…?” he decides he might as well say it.

That doesn’t seem to trouble Saeko though.

“Oh, well that’s fine then,” Saeko says. “You can’t see very well that’s why you have them on right? And I’ve seen your scores in your previous Tests. They’re quite low aren’t they?”

 _Now_ Iwaizumi is starting to be embarrassed now this one is brought up, he can’t help it any way he hasn’t really become much of a better liar all these years—

“I mean—!” Saeko amends quickly, shaking her hands. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I meant it doesn’t really matter but I think I know the reason why you’ve got those low scores before?”

Iwaizumi stiffens. She knows? Does it show? Is it obvious that he’s Chrome or is Saeko just very perceptive? Is it because of the contacts or the way Iwaizumi’s eyes are slowly widening at her in horror that she might have made a discovery and Iwaizumi is finally going to be whisked off away somewhere else—

But Saeko continues, unaffected, “They made you remove your contacts did they? _Tsk_ it’s probably hard to see without those am I right? That’s probably why you couldn’t ace those Tests very well,” she then smiles expectantly, waiting for Iwaizumi to agree.

Iwaizumi on the other hand, laughs weakly.

“Er, yes…,”

Saeko laughs, claps her hands once.

“Well then! No worries, you don’t have to remove them. You’ll thank me for this later on,”

 _Of course I will_ , Iwaizumi thinks to himself as he watches Saeko position herself behind the Swatch. The Swatch is basically a camera—only it doesn’t take pictures, it gives a white-out flash.

“So,” Saeko says, one eye winking as she focuses on the viewfinder. “You probably know what a Swatch is after all these years but I still have to explain it nevertheless for ‘procedural’ reasons…,”

“Okay,”

Saeko twists the lens while she explains.

“A Swatch is a lens that will emit a bright white-out flash, making your iris adjust and your cones to momentarily change so for a short while, a Colorblind person will see Spectrum. It wears off in an hour, yada, yada you get the picture?”

Iwaizumi laughs, nods.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Saeko chuckles and winks at him.

“Don’t tell them I cut it short, it’s taxing I actually had to say the entire thing to the first batch, terrible!” she turns another lens and then steps back, offering Iwaizumi a genuine smile. “Right! Let’s get on with it then. Sit straight please, Iwaizumi-kun and look into the lens.”

Saeko walks away and grabs a remote from a nearby table that’s surrounded by various lenses and papers. Iwaizumi does what he’s told. Flashes like these don’t do any harm to Chromes anyway.

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt though.

As soon as Saeko presses the button on the remote, her forearm covering her eyes, the camera snaps, a bright white light flashes across the room in an instant and Iwaizumi is almost tempted to close his eyes in reflex but ignores it, straining to keep his eyes open for those three seconds of sudden heightened senses from the adrenalin he’s suddenly feeling.

It’s gone as quickly as it flashed and Iwaizumi feels tingly all over, his vision oddly heightened as it always did whenever Iwaizumi experiences this. His black eye still can’t see any color what with the contacts hindering his sight still, his other eye however can pinpoint several colors at once; it’s a little overwhelming.

Exactly how it felt when he started seeing Spectrum.

Only his throat wasn’t so dry then. Right at that moment though, Iwaizumi’s trying his best not to give away hacking coughs, not wanting to embarrass himself.

“How do you feel?” Saeko calls out from somewhere amd Iwaizumi’s focusing on the projected screen in front of him so much he can’t really make out where Saeko is at the moment.

“L-Like,” Iwaizumi rasps, clears his throat. “Like a mantis shrimp.”

Saeko stops for a second and raises her eyebrows at Iwaizumi, eyes wide.

Then she bursts out laughing.

“Like a _what_?” she wheezes out, chortling.

Iwaizumi shrugs lazily, eyes still focused right ahead.

“Mantis shrimp can see more colors than Chromes can.”

Saeko _hmm_ s as she hears about the random fact Iwaizumi pulled out of nowhere however she then proceeds to click her tongue, sounding a little disapproving and that has Iwaizumi breaking his focus on the screen to look at Saeko whom, it turns out, has not moved from where she was earlier, still beside the table with scattered papers.

Saeko sees Iwaizumi’s curious frown and she gives him a slight smile.

“People who can _see_ colors, you mean,” she corrects Iwaizumi kindly. “I’d rather prefer hearing kids these days say the complete thing than just the label—Chrome and Colorblind, especially Colorblind since Colorblindness itself is also a disorder you know? And well, you don’t go around calling people who are afflicted with depression by the illness itself don’t you?”

This is definitely a new thing to hear and Iwaizumi is both ashamed and even guilty for not thinking of it until now.

And anyhow, since when did Colorblindness become registered as a disorder anyway since it’s born into people by default?

“I-I’m really sorry—” Iwaizumi begins, sincerely, humiliated by his lack of tact.

Saeko takes all this graciously though, smiling wide at Iwaizumi’s understanding and chuckling as she waves a hand off.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Now you know and all that jazz,” Saeko winks. “Shall we begin the slides?”

Iwaizumi actually still has more questions in mind preferably the since-when-did-Colorblindness-became-a-disorder-why-have-I-not-heard-of-that kind but the Swatcher is already ahead of him, walking towards the projector and situating several solid colored slides in place.

Maybe afterwards, Iwaizumi tells himself.

(He swears he’s not going to mess this up this time.)

 

“We’ll go have a see at the solid colors first, Iwaizumi-kun,” Saeko says, tapping at her clipboard with her fingers. She takes out a small, white remote from her lab coat which she points toward the projector that Iwaizumi is staring at once again.

“You know the drill,” Saeko continues, clicking and a patterned picture of seemingly random shapes, all with the same hard grey— _squint_ —blue. Iwaizumi blinks hard, opts for the best guess.

“Green,” he tells Saeko, trying hard to make it seem like he sounds sure with himself though in reality it’s making him feel guilty with all these relentless lying.

In the end, Iwaizumi guesses most of them now and again, making sure the colors are analogous with each other anyway though once in a while, giving the correct color in appropriate intervals.

When the fourteenth slide comes on, the picture changes, no longer in a solid color. This one, this slide is a colorful picture of a tropical island Iwaizumi’s not sure where. It doesn’t matter however, because the colors are so vividly dazzling and distracting and Iwaizumi’s sure he hasn’t seen such vibrant colors in a while.

The picture is by the beach, the ocean a deep blue in contrast to the light blue of the cloudless sky. The sand is all white and beige, a row of palm trees has the varying shades of brown on their trunks, its leaves a dark green.

There is a particularly colorful bird taking flight from one of the trees, its plumage red and blue and yellow.

And well, Iwaizumi’s hoping his awestruck expression could pass under the pretense of thinking too hard. The kind easily falling under a wtf-am-I-supposed-to-be-staring-at? kind because hell, Spectrum Tests like this one was entirely new to him.

It’s not too bad either.

Saeko is looking at the picture fondly as well. After a few minutes, she looks at Iwaizumi.

“Iwaizumi-kun, I’d like you to tell me the most prominent color you’ll see in the consecutive pictures that will follow.”

And so without thinking it over, still dazed, Iwaizumi promptly goes, “Blue,”

It takes him exactly four seconds to register Saeko’s soft surprise and immediately, Iwaizumi has a span of his life flash before him— _ah blue is green supposedly_ —

But Saeko merely scribbles down at the clipboard she’s holding interestedly.

“So you _can_ decipher a bit of blue after all. I thought not because you always mistook it for green,”

Iwaizumi clears his throat nervously.

“Um, next slide?”

Saeko chuckles and nods.

“Next slide,” she agrees, clicking the remote again.

And onto the next, and the next, and the next and a few more other pictures that Iwaizumi has never seen before in so much detail, all up close and vibrant and Iwaizumi comes to right then, after seeing a close-up picture of a sunflower he had purposely miscolored as orange, that Saeko has got to be his favorite Swatcher that he’s encountered ever.

The lovely pictures make Iwaizumi forget about guessing too and he just has to keep himself together to keep at it. But then he sees the picture of a pair of shiny, green stag beetles that leaves Iwaizumi too thrilled to even say the wrong answer.

There are a few though that Iwaizumi deliberately responds to incorrectly. Like the picture of a chocolate bar that came up after a picture of a particularly enthusiastic dog and for some reason the shade of brown the chocolate had looked for all the world like the shade of Oikawa’s hair.

(“Green,” Iwaizumi answers to that swiftly, leaving Saeko positively confused.)

The very last slide is a rather sweet picture of two people, presumably holding hands, and with their backs turned. It’s of a boy and a girl, the boy way taller than the other and for some reason, the girl’s honey hair…

Iwaizumi eyes Saeko quickly then back to the screen. There’s no mistaking it though, it’s definitely Saeko in that picture, the yellow-haired boy beside her obviously her pair.

Iwaizumi takes another quick glance towards Saeko. She’s looking at the picture fondly again. She’s probably had that expression since the tropical island picture. Knowing that the pictures she’s showing are probably hers, Iwaizumi feels all warm and comfortable then, and somehow, Saeko seems more endearing than ever.

So Iwaizumi doesn’t get this one wrong, regardless of the others he had done earlier.

“Yellow,” he says and the answer satisfies Saeko enough into getting her to nod.

Saeko chuckles. “Good job, Iwaizumi-kun. I think that was definitely better than your other Tests if I’m right?”

Iwaizumi’s smile is wide.

“Oh, definitely.”

That makes her chuckle again as she moves around to switch off the slides and the swatch and then proceeding to take papers from a table here and there as Iwaizumi relaxes into his chair, relieved that it’s already over.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Saeko tells Iwaizumi, already back to the clutter-piled table and taking a seat. “My soulmate will be delighted. He likes to think he’s a good photographer you know?”

“He is though.” Iwaizumi says amusedly.

Saeko laughs, bowing over the papers on the table and when she looks up, laughter fading, she’s grinning.

“Right, hold on for a moment there I’ll just analyze this up before I give it to you.” Saeko says, clicking a pen and proceeding to determinedly scribble.

“Hmm.” Iwaizumi hums, playing with his own fingers to pass the time. He doesn’t really know if it’s been over an hour already because he can’t exactly tell if his vision has gone back to normal, being that he can already see Spectrum in the first place.

On the other hand, when Iwaizumi looks at Saeko’s honey hair, it isn’t as bright as it was earlier. Not in a Mantis shrimp-vision sort no longer anyway.

“Saeko-san,” Iwaizumi says. “Can I ask you something?”

Saeko doesn’t look up from her work though she hums encouragingly.

“Oh, sure fire away.”

“Er,” Iwaizumi brilliantly starts. “What did you mean earlier? About the Colorblind disorder thing?”

Saeko stops writing and catches Iwaizumi’s eye looking pleasantly surprised. She looks thoughtful for a moment and then she nods. Saeko twists around her chair and pulls out another chair from behind her and drags it in front of the table.

“Sit with me for a moment,” she says.

Iwaizumi does so without question, wanting to quell his curiosity badly. Saeko starts talking the moment he sits and she smiles.

“People who can’t see Spectrum—also coined as Colorblind—are grouped in two terms as you know right?” Saeko raises two fingers and Iwaizumi nods silently.

“One, people are born so, blind to Spectrum at a young age or until they have not encountered their pair,” One finger down. “Two—sadly, when their pair becomes deceased, Spectrum leaves again.” Two fingers down and Saeko clasps her hands together.

“However,” she continues. “There are multiple cases, usually kept private for their own reasons, that don’t fit with those two terms. For example—” Saeko gestures around with her hands. “One of the pair is blind, you see Spectrum for two people at once, you meet your pair and see Spectrum but the other one doesn’t and vice-versa—”

Iwaizumi belatedly realizes he unconsciously gripped on the edge of his seat and the moment the example leaves Saeko, he stiffens.

“—or you’re both soulmates but neither see Spectrum, and the most common, you see your soulmate, see Spectrum but you’re in a crowd so you lose sight of them,” Saeko carries on. “Those are the ‘odd’ cases, see. And they don’t fall under any of the terms so they go under the third term—that’s usually called a disorder these days. You don’t hear a lot of those people because many prefer going to Spectrum facilities—Iwaizumi-kun, still with me?”

Iwaizumi frowns, looking at his hands.

“Those, third term people,” he says. “They get taken away,”

“Oh yes they do,” Saeko says, kindly. “However, not against their will. It _is_ much better to go to a Spectrum facility so you’ll know how to deal with the situation—”

Iwaizumi shakes his head insistently, as with his belief of things going around his head.

“But they leave school even! There was one just a few days ago and I thought they get interrogated and all that…?”

Saeko nods. “Those in school do leave for quite some time. Again, not against their own will, most come back eventually. And yes, interviews do happen which is part of routine nothing strictly put though! Facilities inspire compassion rather than pity—”

Iwaizumi’s trying to breathe in and out slowly, processing all this with growing horror.

“You don’t imprison them? Keep them separate?” Iwaizumi rasps.

Saeko bats an eye and then shakes her head, laughing softly.

“Of course not, Iwaizumi-kun! Where did you even get the idea…?”

Iwaizumi thinks, horrified. _Okay. I may have just misunderstood the last ten years of my life._

And then: _Fuck._

Saeko gently lulls him back out of his reverie.

“Do you know someone who needs the help?” Saeko eyes him curiously. Probably trying to figure out why he’s sweating all of a sudden and how stiff he’s sitting on his chair.

Iwaizumi thinks of Ayano Hotaru who had disappeared. Has she gotten help too?

Iwaizumi thinks of himself, mind reeling. All this time he’s thought wrong he and doesn’t know how to piece this all together.

He thinks of Oikawa. No way in hell is Oikawa going to let him live this down.

“I…,” Iwaizumi says, rubbing the back of his neck uncertainly. “Er, maybe?”

Saeko nods sympathetically.

“I understand. You should have told me you knew someone I would’ve explained it to you immediately. Hold on,” she turns back again fumbling over something that turns out to be her hand bag. Saeko fishes out a small, gray (yellow) rectangular card and slides it across the table to Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi stares at the gray ( _yellow_ ) card and looks at Saeko questioningly. She raises her eyebrows and motions for him to go and read as she goes back to scribbling over Iwaizumi’s file.

Iwaizumi looks it over. The front has an embossed crescent moon with a few metallic dots as stars. At the center typed in a formal cursive is _MAKULAY SPECTRUM FACILITY_ , in gold hue. There’s an address beneath it that Iwaizumi doesn’t read as he flips the card over.

 

                    AKITERU TSUKISHIMA, PhD

      Licensed Swatch, Makulay Spectrum Facility Head

 

Saeko gushes proudly.

“My pair owns that facility, it’s the nearest one around…,” she continues talking and Iwaizumi traces the name on the card with his finger.

Must be nice to have someone else knowing.

“We’re not married or anything though,” Saeko continues, oblivious to the fact that she’s interrupted Iwaizumi’s thoughts. “Yet, that is. I’d probably die without him since he reminds me to eat…”

As Saeko rambles on, Iwaizumi shrinks back in his seat, flipping the card again and again in his hands. The facility is close by, Iwaizumi checks the address. It’s just a few kilometers and a train ride away from home.

Obviously there wouldn’t be volleyball practice today, what with the Spectrum Test and all.

Perhaps he should…

“Thanks for this.” Iwaizumi tells Saeko, motioning to the card in his hand.

 

Oikawa immediately tries finding Iwaizumi as soon as the dismissal bell rings. He came back from the Swatcher office a few periods back and he seemed to be in deep thought but then Oikawa was called for his turn and he never did get to ask Iwaizumi how his went.

Oikawa wants to tell Iwaizumi how _his_ own went. Oikawa wants to tell him that his results aren’t as good as he makes them out to be and that he’s going to eventually never see Spectrum unless he finds his soulmate.

Oikawa wants to tell Iwaizumi all of that because he knows Iwaizumi will listen regardless, despite it sounding like a blatant lie and he’s just afraid that someday Iwaizumi will see before him and he’ll leave and—

Oikawa finds Iwaizumi at the shoe lockers. They don’t have practice today anyway so for sure Iwaizumi’s planning to go home early. Oikawa immediately summons the biggest smile he can muster before bounding for Iwaizumi gleefully.

“Iwa-chan!”

Iwaizumi starts and closes his locker abruptly and when he turns and sees it’s Oikawa, he relaxes and then he does his usual frown.

“O-Oikawa,” Iwaizumi stammers, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Oikawa grins at him expectantly.

“Going home already? You have to wait for me, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, opening his own locker beside Iwaizumi’s.

Iwaizumi rubs the back of his neck, one of his permanent habits.

“Er—” Iwaizumi begins.

Oikawa finishes wearing his shoes and faces Iwaizumi, excited.

“Hey, hey Iwa-chan, how did you do with your Test? I for one did really—”

Iwaizumi cuts him off, rolling his eyes.

“—great, I know like you always say. Typical. I’m not walking with you home today by the way.”

That surprises Oikawa. He raises his eyebrows and then flat out whines, not helping it.

“Ehh, but Iwa-chan, hey you didn’t tell me how your test went!”

Iwaizumi steps back and turns to go. He waves at Oikawa dismissively.

“Maybe another time. See you around, Oikawa.”

Oikawa leans back on the lockers, ignoring the other people swarming at the other lockers as he watches Iwaizumi go.

Oikawa shouldn’t be bothered. Iwaizumi has always been like that after all and he knows despite that, Iwaizumi still cares.

He doesn’t want to admit at times like this, suddenly he’s miles away and suddenly, he feels unhappy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact  
> \- "Makulay" means "colorful" in Filipino
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	4. Murasaki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow, challenging. He lets go of Oikawa’s collar and Oikawa almost short-circuits right there when the hand just moves to his forehead.  
> Iwaizumi laughs breathily as though he’s found evidence that Oikawa is in fact, tired.  
> “See!” Iwaizumi says, almost gleeful. “You’re even hot; I bet you’re not sleeping well.”  
> “I don’t have to not sleep well to be hot, Iwa-chan,”  
> “I’m going to smack you, Oikawa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Murasaki** 紫  
>  _Violet_

Iwaizumi stops as soon as he steps beside the enormous fountain at the front steps of Makulay Facility. He shoves his hands in his pockets hastily, his face evidently frowning as he’s trying to process why he’s standing here.

But of course he knows and now he just feels stupid.

Iwaizumi groans inwardly. Should he not have bothered coming here? Was he too hasty? He’s sure he was too hasty…

He leans on the base of the fountain, the fountain, Iwaizumi now notices, is some ridiculous gigantic fish that has water bursting out of its mouth and Iwaizumi supposes it’s for good luck but he can’t help but roll his eyes at it.

There are quite a number of people going in and out of the facility too, none of them a familiar face and Iwaizumi’s glad that is so but now he’s contemplating on turning back again, internalizing that perhaps this visit will just be fruitless and he really does start turning around.

And then he hears a quiet, annoyed scuffle and he turns his head to the side.

There are two people standing there, just a bit further from Iwaizumi and one of them, black-haired, seemingly have not bothered to touch a comb since waking up, looks exasperated, as though trying to convince the other person with him who looks terribly bored and pouty. His hair is black and…gray at the tips? Iwaizumi squints his eyes and oh, the tips of his hair are yellow.

Their quiet scuffle is ostensibly turning into a full on argument and Iwaizumi, being close, shifts awkwardly and he leans on the stupid fish fountain again.

Comb guy unfortunately catches the action though and he glances at Iwaizumi quickly, blinks confusedly and then looks at his companion sadly.

“Kenma, come on, I want to do this it’ll be okay,” he tries consoling but Kenma looks away stubbornly and Iwaizumi can sympathize with Comb guy all of a sudden.

Comb guy huffs, hands on his hips and glances at Iwaizumi again.

“Hey,” Comb guy calls out to him and Iwaizumi starts. “You’re here for an appointment too right? More Spectrum Testing?”

Unsure, Iwaizumi twiddles with his fingers.

“Um—”

“You Colorblind?” Comb guy interrupts him before he can even finish. Kenma snaps his gaze to Comb guy and elbows him quite hard on the ribs, surprising even Iwaizumi.

“Ow, ow! Sorry, you blind to Spectrum then?” Comb guy says achingly, holding his side.

Again, uncertain whether he should tell the truth or not, Iwaizumi looks at Kenma instead and only realizes that he’s been holding hands with Comb guy this entire time and it just _clicks_ to him with a big _oh_.

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi says, looking at Comb guy now.

Comb guy seems pleased and he nudges Kenma.

“See? He’s blind like me—” to Iwaizumi he goes, “My pair, he sees Spectrum,” he gestures to Kenma with his other hand and then to himself. “I can’t and I told him he can’t quit school so I’ll go to a facility instead—”

Kenma tugs at his hand, ears turning red.

“You don’t have to tell him your entire life story, Kuro.”

Comb guy—Kuroo? Kuroo turns to Kenma again.

“I’m the one who’s got a problem here, you know that, we’ve been through this before…”

And then they’re back to arguing again and Iwaizumi just stands there, starting to sweat from the awkwardness that he finds himself backing away.

Backing away and towards the entrance of the Facility. Might as well get through this while he’s still here, Iwaizumi decides.

Kuroo and Kenma doesn’t seem to have noticed Iwaizumi slipping away, too caught up with their conversation and Iwaizumi is more than grateful as he makes his way inside.

Inside the Facility, it’s rather warmer than out and it smells very homey. What gets Iwaizumi the most though is just how _colorful_ it is, he doesn’t even have to squint to see them.

The tiles are a dark gray (blue) and the walls a lighter shade of it. Framed against them are huge paintings of swirling colors. Not _exactly_ a swirl of colors but from where Iwaizumi is standing, everything seems to blend in along with the giant chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, all in dark and light shades of black and white and gray but turns out to be gems of red and blue and yellow, gems that are reflecting the gray (orange) rays of the sunset and sending a pattern of colors all over the room.

One particularly large painting hangs just over the lavish front desk and Iwaizumi finds himself staring at the face of a woman of multifaceted colors of red to yellow and pink and violet. The woman in the painting looks challenging, as though daring anyone to tell her anything otherwise and for the first time ever, Iwaizumi feels bad for people who cannot see the daring shades of Spectrum.

“Can I help you?”

Iwaizumi tears his gaze away from the painting and down. Well up really because the person manning the front desk is at least a few inches taller than he is, unnervingly. Seems younger too and his hair a familiar shade of white (yellow).

Said blond looks at Iwaizumi indifferently, adjusting the frame of his dark glasses, the lenses tinted enough to make his eyes look darker than it seems to be. The lenses somewhat remind Iwaizumi of his own contacts.

“Do you have an appointment?” he asks again and seems to think Iwaizumi has no knowledge of speaking because he sounds more apathetic than when he uttered the first question.

Iwaizumi looks at the receptionist’s name plate and _oh_ the familiar blond hair suddenly makes sense.

“Tsukishima?” Iwaizumi hears himself speak. “You aren’t Dr. Akiteru are you?”

_Of course he isn’t Hajime, don’t be stupid he seems too young to be Saeko’s partner—_

“That’s me,” Tsukishima, the receptionist, says lazily.

“Oh.”

Tsukishima snorts and then he’s sliding a clipboard and a pen towards Iwaizumi.

“Just messing with you I’m his brother I’m not that old,” he goes casually, oblivious that Iwaizumi’s heart is beating erratically in nervousness. “You’re new yeah?”

“Um, yes. I don’t have an appointment…,” Iwaizumi says.

“That’s fine; fill that up first before anything.”

So Iwaizumi does, taking his time to fill out the appointment form which covers the usual things intended for a bio data save for the small box at the corner asking if he’s blind to Spectrum or Chrome-sighted and Iwaizumi’s pen noticeably hovers over those two choices for a few seconds longer than needed before he guiltily checks _Blind to Spectrum_.

Akiteru’s brother sees the slightest hesitation though.

“Hmm…for how long?” he suddenly asks Iwaizumi, resting his elbows on the glass top and his chin on his palms.

Iwaizumi pauses writing to look at Tsukishima in a bewildered scowl.

“Huh?”

Tsukishima adjusts the side of his glasses again, distinctly running a finger along the rim of his left lens.

“How long did you start seeing Spectrum?”

It’s only with that question that Iwaizumi realizes Tsukishima is referring to his contacts and that makes Iwaizumi self-consciously blink, a little taken aback.

“Oh, but I…,” Iwaizumi starts but then trails off when Tsukishima straightens up and shrugs.

“It’s alright. You don’t have to hide that thing here. You don’t have to tell me either. If you’re blind or unpaired that’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Tsukishima tells him quietly. He’s looking at his hands now, clasped together. “There are a lot of misinformed, mislead people coming here for that kind of problem that’s why Swatchers help.”

His muted tone makes Iwaizumi wonder if somehow something like that has happened to him too. That would probably explain the tint of his glasses.

Iwaizumi sighs, resigned and crumples the appointment form he’s writing on. Tsukishima raises his eyebrows as he watches, stares down at Iwaizumi when he extends the crumpled ball of half-answered appointment form towards him.

“Alright, I get where you’re getting at,” Iwaizumi says. “Can you get me another form?”

That makes Tsukishima scoff as he takes the ball of paper though the scoff sounds pleased. He’s clearly used to this kind of work, probably guilt tripping other individuals for their own good anyway. He fishes out another clean sheet for Iwaizumi to answer, smiling slightly.

Iwaizumi has confidently checked the _Chrome-sighted_ choice when Kuroo and Kenma comes in, Kuroo laughing loudly that Iwaizumi almost drops the pen he’s holding, already starting to regret having checked that choice but then he realizes he doesn’t even _know_ these people so what does it matter—

The pair walks towards the front desk and somehow Kuroo’s voice makes Iwaizumi want to shrink around Kenma’s size.

“KEI!” Kuroo calls out loudly to Tsukishima who clicks his tongue in annoyance. Kuroo only leans on the glass top however to go closer and that has Tsukishima backing away, frowning.

“I convinced him I’ll do it!” Kuroo says, proudly and he points to Kenma who rolls his eyes, probably in defeat and he sees Iwaizumi standing there.

“Oh,” Kenma says, softly, in greeting.

“Oh!” Kuroo says, more enthusiastically now that he recognizes Iwaizumi. “It’s you again! I knew you’d be here too, that’s awesome.”

“He told you he’d be here.” Kenma points out.

“I never got to go about that actually.” Iwaizumi tells them.

Kuroo completely ignores both of them.

“Hmm,” he says, innocently, a hand on his chin. Kuroo looks around Iwaizumi curiously and Iwaizumi suddenly has a precognition of feeling dread when Kuroo continues further—“Where’s your pair?”

Iwaizumi’s reply sounds _too_ quick, almost like a slap.

“No pair, no pair.” Iwaizumi says swiftly, shaking a hand in _utter nonchalance_. He tells himself that. He’s definitely nonchalant about this.

Kuroo steps closer to him and smacks his shoulder in what is supposed to be a friendly pat. There’s no pity in the action though, thankfully. In fact, Kuroo seems rather thrilled.

“Ahh, you’re one of those huh? That’s fine, it happens sometimes,” Kuroo says.

Kenma kicks Kuroo’s shin.

“ _Kuroo_!” he chides disapprovingly at the same time Tsukishima _tsk_ s and goes, “Stop bothering guests, Kuroo-san.”

“It’s alright really, I don’t mind—” Iwaizumi buts in, trying to save the situation at hand.

Kuroo doesn’t even look a bit bashful.

“I was just asking!” he insists and then looks at Iwaizumi with a slightly apologetic expression. “Unless if this is a really triggering, really uncomfortable topic then we can just forget I ever brought it up in the first place, it never happened—”

And through and through with Kuroo’s ranting, Iwaizumi finds himself relaxing, even smiling and he laughs the moment Kuroo runs out of breath.

“Yeah, yeah, stop. It’s okay really.” Iwaizumi assures him and this time, for some odd reason, what with the heavyweight settled in him so very long ago fleeing, Iwaizumi means it.

 

Iwaizumi finishes the form moments later, trying to zone out Kuroo’s chatter and Kenma’s soft hums of reply. Apparently, their Swatch turns out to be Saeko herself, much to Iwaizumi’s amazement, and she still hasn’t returned from the Spectrum Test she was one of in the school nearby, Kuroo told them. Iwaizumi isn’t sure if he should still butt in and say the school nearby is the one he goes to but it’s probably not the right timing for it, not when Kuroo has moved on to another topic.

Tsukishima looks at Iwaizumi dead in the eye as Iwaizumi hands him the finished form.

“I’m sorry about him, I swear we have better guests,” he tells Iwaizumi aside.

Iwaizumi can’t help but grin. This reminds him of Oikawa somehow.

“Don’t worry about it; I’ve been through worse.”

“That’s good news,” Tsukishima says, shoving Iwaizumi’s form into a drawer. “You might see him now and then around. Anyway, we’ll just give you a call once we’ve set up an appointment and all. Though it might take, say a week or two, if that’s, er, okay.”

_I wasn’t even sure if I was up for this in the first place so take your time._

Iwaizumi laughs shakily. “Yes, I understand that’s completely fine—”

“TSUKISHIMAAA!”

A yelling voice comes shrilly from inside the front desk office, making everyone close by jump and stop midsentence and then carry on when said voice comes running out huffing and disheveled in the form of a small person with a rather dark shade of gray (bright orange…? Iwaizumi isn’t even remotely sure if he’s seeing this correctly or some people just has wild colored hair without him noticing) hair and eyes of the same dark (vivid) color, who bumps into a disgusted looking Tsukishima whose glasses proceed to skitter across the glass top.

“I’M NOT LATE!” Newcomer trills again, bouncing slightly. He’s wearing the same plain uniform Tsukishima is wearing albeit his tie isn’t properly tied and the lower buttons of his dress shirt is unbuttoned, most probably from rushing.

“Hinata!” Kuroo greets exuberantly.

Hinata easily ignores the exclamation because he looks beside Kuroo and yells, “Ooooh! Kenma!”

Iwaizumi is rather flabbergasted by this turn of events, uncertain if it’s natural around here to scream so much but that’s probably just the orange kid doing most of the excited screaming.

“I’m surrounded by idiots.” Tsukishima grumbles to himself as he takes his glasses back and before putting back on the tinted lenses, Iwaizumi sees really hazel irises.

Hinata is still yammering excitedly and Iwaizumi shakes his head in amusement.

“I should get going,” he says.

Tsukishima nods, waves a hand off.

“Thanks for tolerating the mess. We’re actually a gentle community don’t let it fool you.”

Iwaizumi laughs. “I’m sure you are,” he says before finally moving away.

He’s not exactly looking at where he’s going as he’s walking out the pebbly path of the Facility and it’s no wonder that Iwaizumi bumps into someone rather brusquely, both of them staggering back a few steps with a welp.

“Oh my,” The person he bumped into says as something falls onto the path with a clunk.

It’s a white cane.

The kind blind people use.

And then with an increasing feeling of horror: _You just bumped into a blind person what kind of person are you oh my god._

“Oh Christ—I’m really—I didn’t mean—! I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’m really sorry!” Iwaizumi says in dismay, feeling awful with himself as he picks up the handle of the white cane and pressing it against the person’s already reaching hand.

Iwaizumi continues his flurry of apologies even after the person takes his cane back and the person shakes his hand back and forth and _chuckles_.

“Hey, calm down!” The person says, voice so soft even with the exclamation. “I’m okay, don’t panic. I was just surprised—I don’t bump into people much.”

Iwaizumi shifts his weight from side to side. This is why he can’t ever have good things.

“I’m really sorry,” Iwaizumi tells him again.

The person grins, friendly. He’s looking straightforward, (the lightest brown) eyes unseeing though they are bright and smiling. His hair is rather interesting, Iwaizumi notices, as it’s literally the same shade of gray Spectrum or otherwise.

“That’s okay. You didn’t mean it, hey at least I didn’t fall or anything that would have been disastrous.”

Iwaizumi’s pretty sure he’s blanching by this point.

Someone else catches up to them, jogging towards Iwaizumi’s companion’s side.

“Suga, I’m here, what’s going on?” he says, placing a hand on Suga’s shoulder.

Suga’s smile turns amused. “Ah, Daichi,” he pats Daichi’s hand. “I made a friend.”

Iwaizumi’s face seems to go back and forth odd temperatures and he’s shifting on his feet again. Daichi on the other hand, relaxes, raising a dark eyebrow to somehow convey friendship.

He looks like the darker, rougher version of Suga, Iwaizumi thinks, with his black hair and dark eyes after all though he looks kind enough, even nodding at Iwaizumi in greeting.

“I’ve never heard your voice before. Are you a new guest?” Suga wants to know.

Iwaizumi turns to Suga and replies, “Yes, actually I’ve just…signed up for this…recently,” Literally a few minutes ago.

“That’s lovely! I’m Sugawara Koushi,” he introduces, gesturing to himself then to the general direction beside him where Daichi is standing. “And this is Daichi,”

“I’m Iwaizumi.”

Sugawara nods, smiling. “Well! It’s nice to know you, Iwaizumi. Daichi and I have to go see Dr. Akiteru now, we’ll see you around.” Sugawara says, doing a small wave.

“Ah yes of course,” Iwaizumi says, getting out of their way as he moves around, already taking a few steps back. “I was already leaving anyway. Nice to meet you both, again. And er, sorry about earlier, Suga.”

Sugawara laughs and Iwaizumi hears Daichi whisper “What happened?” so suspiciously before he takes off.

 

The facility doesn’t call Iwaizumi for the next following days, nor the week that follows and sometimes Iwaizumi wonders whether or not all of it was even real, that there are really people who share the same problems as him. That there are really people who understand all this mess.

The feeling is light, free. Every color seems clearer, even if Iwaizumi constantly sees the world in a half-and-half Spectrum. Every spike, every jump, every exhaustion-worthy action feels less and less restricted.

So this is what it’s like.

 

Something is wrong with Oikawa.

He can’t exactly pinpoint when he started doing all these gradual, discrete glances; secret, longing peering; yearning for more fleeting gentle pats until it has intensified all these years.

This should not be a problem.

Friends look after one another, don’t they? They’re supposed to make sure the other is alright, that he’s eating well and that he’s doing well in school with a well-placed smack now and then if they’re being stubborn and ignorant about their health so Oikawa should just stop _noticing_.

This is normal, he’s fine. Wanting his attention all the time is fine, wanting him to smile all the time is fine. This is fine.

But then whenever Spectrum Test results come in, it’s usually Iwaizumi who ends up visibly sulking. He usually tells Oikawa what went on in a nonchalant voice and would carry on his life though Oikawa knows he’s at least a little bit upset. Oikawa is the one who’s supposedly looking hopeful, as though love is close despite his own tests proving him otherwise.

Yet this time.

Iwaizumi looks pretty different. Oikawa doesn’t know if it’s because of his results or not but now and again, Oikawa finds himself staring at him. Stares as Iwaizumi stalks off to one of the benches after a round of spiking, as he laughs at some joke he hears from Hanamaki (and this is when Oikawa realizes something is wrong because yes Iwaizumi has a nice laugh, very contagious, the kind that the body just follows and Oikawa shouldn’t really…focus on that so much) and even the most mundane things like writing or eating has Oikawa focusing on him so much and he can’t really tell why it keeps him occupied.

Except it does and if he doesn’t busy himself the next thing he might find himself doing is slacking off. So Oikawa lets go, buries himself in practices, filters his thoughts to forget his seemingly growing problem, forgets his own test results, throws out every memory of a Swatcher’s sympathetic smile with regards to the results, overlooks every brilliant detail he’s suddenly seeing in Iwaizumi even in black and white because he knows if he’ll pursue this it will be Very Bad and Iwaizumi’s going to see Spectrum someday anyway and he really should _just_ —

Drop it.

Oikawa huffs and then he’s running, flying, lets the serve take over and he feels the sting of the hit and then he’s back on the ground and there’s a dull ache going haywire in his right knee and Oikawa vaguely thinks _I…somehow forgot my brace_ before buckling onto the floor roughly and for what seemed minutes, just lying there.

Oikawa wants to laugh at the ridiculousness of this situation, he forgot the one thing he needs when practicing and now his knee is aching like a bitch and he wants to laugh at the position he’s in it’s really dumb—

“OIKAWA!”

The yelling voice sends a surge of exhilaration—even fear that has Oikawa immediately scrambling up despite the aching as he watches Iwaizumi stomp loudly towards him, anger marked across his features.

Oikawa raises both his hands as Iwaizumi approaches him, hobbling on his feet and chuckling nervously.

“I-Iwa-chan! You’re here! I thought you left, it’s Friday you know doesn’t your dad cook dinner you should get home—”

Iwaizumi stops short in front of him and then he’s slapping something angrily against Oikawa’s face.

“Ow, ow, Iwa-chan—!”

“Don’t ‘Iwa-chan’ me you dumbass!” Iwaizumi yells, his voice echoing through the empty court. “What do you think you’re doing?! Over-practicing yourself and then you forget that? You’re such an _ass_ ,”

Oikawa grips at the thing Iwaizumi had just thrown at him and then his breath hitches when he realizes what it is.

“O-Oh it’s my, haha, it’s my…”

Iwaizumi scoffs. “Yes it is you shit,” he moves closer, frowning still as he looks up at Oikawa in scrutiny, possibly seeing the gross eyebags and he’s _so close_ , so close Oikawa has to focus somewhere anywhere that isn’t Iwaizumi’s mismatched eyes.

Finally, Iwaizumi steps back, an unimpressed expression on his face and then he’s abruptly grabbing Oikawa by the hand and dragging him towards the door.

“Iwa-chan! Wait, hold on—” Oikawa shouts, startled and he tries to keep up with Iwaizumi’s fast pace.

“We’re going home, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi says, his voice a tad bit gentler than earlier. And then rougher, “I don’t want to hear your whining.”

Oikawa purses his lips. Of course, as always.

 

The interrogation happens as they’re walking back home, Oikawa walking just a bit behind Iwaizumi, trying his best not to look at his back or anywhere near his direction…

“You look tired,” Iwaizumi comments out of nowhere and Oikawa flinches. “Have you been sleeping okay?”

Oikawa snorts haughtily, tossing his hair back.

“Of course, Iwa-chan, look at me in my prime I’m not ‘tired’ as you say haha that is just stupid—”

Iwaizumi stops walking all of a sudden, expression unmoved and he reaches out to Oikawa and proceeds to pull his collar down so his face is close to his. The action is so sudden that Oikawa can only manage a small yelp, his words stuttering into disappearance and _oh no_ his face is most _definitely_ on fire and he’s just so sure Iwaizumi can see, what with him being so close that Oikawa can see the way his eyebrows wrinkle so…yes it’s definitely ugly, Oikawa will settle for that. And his other gray eye, the same shade as the grass growing in his mother’s lawn, yes that’s also very ugly too, of course.

“No you’re not.” Iwaizumi tells Oikawa.

Oikawa’s pretty thrown that he doesn’t get this at first, his trembling fingers latching on to the hand Iwaizumi’s holding his collar with.

“I’m not what…?” Oikawa mumbles, scowling.

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, his frown disappearing.

“You aren’t tired, you say but you certainly are,” Iwaizumi says, sighing before drawing away but still not letting go.

Oikawa gasps indignantly. “I am not! I’m fine, really why are you such a mother hen?”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow, challenging. He lets go of Oikawa’s collar and Oikawa almost short-circuits right there when the hand just moves to his forehead.

Iwaizumi laughs breathily as though he’s found evidence that Oikawa is in fact, tired.

“See!” Iwaizumi says, almost gleeful. “You’re even hot; I bet you’re not sleeping well.”

“I don’t have to not sleep well to be hot, Iwa-chan,”

“I’m going to smack you, Oikawa.”

Oikawa laughs, patting Iwaizumi’s hand. Iwaizumi removes his hand afterwards, smiling slightly and Oikawa absolutely did not miss the warm hand for a second.

“I’m really fine.” Oikawa tells Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi groans, exasperated. He turns around, running a hand through his hair and they start walking again. Oikawa follows silently, wondering if Iwaizumi’s back to being mad again.

“Hey, Oikawa, stay over tonight.” Iwaizumi says quietly.

Oikawa stops in his tracks, surprised, unsure if he heard that right. Iwaizumi who’s walking ahead, stops too, faces Oikawa again with raised eyebrows, questioning.

Oikawa grins, heart stuttering hard inside his chest. He catches up to Iwaizumi and lopes his arm around his, head leaning on Iwaizumi’s shoulder.

This should not be a problem.

He’s always stayed over at the Iwaizumi residence, almost every weekend and it’s all normal. Sleepovers are normal when you’re best friends, after all both your houses are just situated close together.

And yet there’s a different warmth, thinking of the caring intent of the invitation.

“I’m okay, I’ll figure myself out.” Oikawa says.

“Oh shut up, you’re walking around dazed—I’ll put you out to sleep myself if I have to.”

“Ah, how nice~ Will you sing to me?”

“I wasn’t joking a while ago when I said I’m going to smack you.”

Oikawa giggles, looks at Iwaizumi teasingly.

“Mother hen.” He mumbles, grinning.

Iwaizumi scowls and then suddenly, he pokes Oikawa’s side.

Oikawa practically flies off of him, squealing. Iwaizumi prods him with more pokes, grinning too now, as Oikawa tries warding off Iwaizumi’s poking with whines of “IWA-CHAN NO! MERCY!” and continues poking. It turns into a short scuffle, Oikawa trying to return half the pokes with no avail, and by the time they’ve reached their street, both are in fits of laughter, normal.

This is okay.

 

“I’m home!” Iwaizumi calls out breathily as he and Oikawa gets in the house. He can hear the sound of pots and pans in the kitchen, probably his dad cooking because Iwaizumi’s mother greets them in the doorway, smiling wide.

“Welcome home, Hajime! And oh, Tooru! Come in!” she greets, ushering them inside, obviously pleased.

“Good evening, Aiko-san!” Oikawa replies charmingly, as usual and Iwaizumi’s mother is just delighted.

“Are you staying over tonight?” Aiko asks as they walk to the living room.

“Iwa-chan’s forcing me to I think he gets nightmares that’s why he—”

“Don’t listen to him, Mom, he’s stupid.” Iwaizumi grumbles.

Aiko _tsk_ s at her son. “Oh, Hajime, that’s not nice.”

“That’s right, Hajime, that’s not nice.” Oikawa repeats, grinning.

Iwaizumi’s father comes around, wearing an apron and a smile so alike Iwaizumi’s own. In actuality, Iwaizumi had grown up to look so alike him.

“Did I hear my favorite person?” Jirou says jokingly as he enters, waving.

“That would be me.” Oikawa says immediately, looking proud of himself that Iwaizumi almost snorts though he can’t help a small smile.

Jirou walks up to them and pats Oikawa’s shoulder, laughing.

“Don’t say that out loud, Hajime will be jealous.” He tells Oikawa helpfully.

“Yeah, I’m totally green with envy.” Iwaizumi deadpans and they both laugh.

Jirou ruffles his son’s hair.

“Welcome home.” Jirou says.

“Oh my, Tooru,” Aiko says, reaching out a hand to pat Oikawa’s cheek. “Have you been sleeping well? You look rather pale and your cheeks are flushed.”

Oikawa blinks in disbelief. Was it that obvious? Man it’s hard not seeing—

Oikawa looks at Iwaizumi sharply but Iwaizumi only shrugs, looking bored if anything.

“I know the medicine for that,” Jirou announces, self-satisfied. “Uncle Jirou’s homemade food, yep washes away all the tiredness, let’s go eat, boys,” Jirou winks at Aiko. “And gorgeous lady.” That has Aiko laughing.

“Gross,” Iwaizumi says, smiling himself. He looks at Oikawa who is looking at him oddly. “Come on, Oikawa, let’s eat.”

Oikawa smiles.

“Okay, Iwa-chan,”

 

Oikawa’s able to sleep for at least two hours until he wakes up out of a jarring dream at 1 am. He immediately forgets whatever dream he had earlier, only his heart is beating fast and that he can no longer sleep again. He twists and turns in his futon until he finally gives up eventually, sitting up in the dark and rubbing his eyes miserably.

He stares at the walls of Iwaizumi’s room, usually a light shade of gray when there’s light out ( _blue_ , Jirou-san once told him a long time ago) is now a darker gray, black even and if Oikawa could see color, he could bet the walls are violet in this darkness.

(Oikawa had always been pretty attentive whenever his mother talks about the color wheel, describes to him colors he had never seen in a way more imaginative manner unlike school does.)

Violet or not, black or not, gray or not, Oikawa had long thought of these walls as familiar as his own room back in his own home. These walls had always been comforting, loving. A second space of comfort he can go to anytime.

Oikawa turns to look at Iwaizumi’s sleeping form in his bed, one arm over the edge though his face is hidden by several pillows. It makes Oikawa want to smile. Iwaizumi’s always been a messy sleeper, even whenever they’re with their team on rare practice matches outside the prefecture.

Iwaizumi’s breathing is deep and even, clearly deeply asleep and Oikawa envies him slightly, wishing he could go back to sleep too. Instead, he scoots closer to the bed, proceeding to bap his forehead on Iwaizumi’s hand, closing his eyes.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mumbles. “You’re very lucky.”

Iwaizumi’s fingers suddenly thread themselves into Oikawa’s hair and Oikawa jumps up, startled.

“I-Iwa—!” Oikawa stammers, face blooming with heat and he’s thankful for the darkness.

Iwaizumi removes a pillow from his face with his other hand, sitting up somewhat and blinking at Oikawa sleepily in the darkness.

“Oh, Oikawa?” Iwaizumi mumbles, voice heavy with sleep.

“Ah, Iwa-chan! It’s me, go back to sleep—” Oikawa says hurriedly, as quietly as possible for someone who’s too flustered to get the words out correctly.

Iwaizumi hoists himself up with one elbow. His hair is sticking out in various directions, even spikier than it usually is and Oikawa wants to reach out and pat it down.

“Did you sleep at all?” Iwaizumi asks him tiredly.

Oikawa scratches his head. “Yeah,” Not actually a lie either though two hours isn’t exactly a good night’s rest.

Iwaizumi tsks, clearly unconvinced.

“Dumbass,” Oikawa hears him mumble.

Oikawa puffs out his cheeks indignantly, about to make a retort but he stops, watching Iwaizumi interestedly as he scoots over his bed to give space and then continues to patting the said empty space on the bed.

Sleepily, Iwaizumi goes, “C’mere,”

Oikawa’s heart shoots up his throat.

“Ah—Iwa-chan, you don’t need—”

Iwaizumi groans. “Don’t make me come down there, Oikawa I’m hella tired,”

Oikawa’s eyes are wide as saucers. This kind of chance is like a once in a lifetime thing and with Iwaizumi too! Next thing Oikawa finds himself doing is grabbing his own blankets so quickly it ought to be embarrassing.

He settles close to Iwaizumi, who has uncovered his blankets and when Oikawa has snuggled in, he wraps those around Oikawa as well.

Oikawa’s heartbeat is somewhere around the vicinity of his ears and his face and probably has left his chest for good.

This should not be a problem. They’ve shared a bed so many times, Oikawa thinks he’s being flat out ridiculous.

He wraps himself around Iwaizumi, like he’s always doing though this time, he’s feeling Iwaizumi’s warmth all around, on the blankets, on the bed, even Iwaizumi’s breath against Oikawa’s hair as he hugs Oikawa close, his strong arms around him and Oikawa can faintly smell the usual cologne Iwaizumi uses, Iwaizumi’s own calm heartbeat, the sound of his mumbling and—

_Oh boy this should not be a problem._

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says against Oikawa’s hair. “What’s up with you?”

Oikawa hums. “What?”

“I did mean it when I wondered why you were tired. You even forgot your goddamn braces, the only thing you never forget save for I don’t know, your phone or whatever.”

“I…” Oikawa starts and then with a feeling of impending horror, he feels his eyes well up. This is stupid! He doesn’t even know what’s going on with him! “I don’t really know.”

Oikawa feels Iwaizumi sigh.

“Is it because of the Spec Test? You were pretty excited I thought you had a good result,”

That has Oikawa pouting. He tugs at Iwaizumi’s shirt, annoyed.

“Well you never told me what yours was.”

Iwaizumi suddenly laughs and Oikawa almost wants to kick him away but Iwaizumi still has his hold on him.

“Are you serious?” Iwaizumi wheezes. “You’re upset just because of that?”

Oikawa closes his eyes. “Well, no.”

Iwaizumi exhales. “Mine was better than usual, strange. I guess it depends on the Swatcher though. Look, whatever it is you’re upset with it’s just a test okay? It doesn’t improve anything blind or not.”

_But they said I had seemingly close to no primary color vision despite several snaps of the Swatch. “Are you sure you aren’t paired?” They always ask and I always wonder because I’m not and now your tests are better, you’re going to get paired soon and you’re going to leave—_

“Ow, Oikawa stop squeezing my shirt, jesus.” Iwaizumi complains under his breath.

Oikawa immediately lets go once realizing the action. He exhales a breath shakily, as quietly as he could muster.

“I know, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mumbles, burying his face into Iwaizumi’s collar.

“I just want you to take care of yourself,” Iwaizumi says. “Results on papers are not going to end you.”

Despite everything, Oikawa smiles.

What an Iwa-chan thing to say, he thinks last, finally lulled by Iwaizumi’s voice to sleep.

 

Iwaizumi receives the text he’s most awaited for another two weeks later. He just knew somehow, the moment his phone beeped after practice, that the text would be the date of appointment and all those formalities.

He realizes too, at that moment, that he’s not the one who needs it the most. He looks at Oikawa, babbling as he walks ahead of him and completely tunes out whatever he’s chattering about.

Oikawa’s been rather painstaking lately, trying to identify every shade of gray and black there is and guessing what the correct color it is and he misses most often though Iwaizumi can’t really tell him.

Oikawa’s clearly hung up over whatever his results were. It’s unsettling.

“Hey, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi calls after him. That makes Oikawa stop talking and he smiles at Iwaizumi, waiting.

“What is it, Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi checks the text one last time before looking up at Oikawa again.

“Are you free this Saturday?" he asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> i kno that feel ur feelin oikawa iwa has that effect on people hehe  
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	5. Kuro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oikawa, what are you doing?”  
> Iwaizumi sounds hushed. Or choked.  
> Oikawa’s looking at him intently, still with that seeking gaze all over Iwaizumi’s face and Iwaizumi doesn’t know what’s wrong. Did he have something on his face? Was it that god awful scar on his forehead again? Did he forget his contacts? Iwaizumi’s sure he put it in this afternoon—  
> “You weren’t around today,” Oikawa says, voice lowering, his minty breath tickling Iwaizumi’s cheek.  
> Oh, bad. This is very bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Kuro** 黒  
>  _Black_

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa huffs, trying to catch up with Iwaizumi who’s walking way ahead of him now. “Iwa-chan! Hold on, wait for me! What’s that place called again?”

Oikawa’s catches up to Iwaizumi now and he stares at him but his expression is unreadable and doesn’t really give any answer to Oikawa’s question.

Iwaizumi feels Oikawa’s stare and he looks back at him and rolls his eyes.

“I told you, Oikawa, it’s a Spectrum Facility.” Iwaizumi says. He takes out the business card Saeko once gave him from his sweater pocket and thrusts it yet again into Oikawa’s hands for the tenth time this week.

“‘ _Makulay Spectrum Facility’_ ” Oikawa recites. Then he looks at Iwaizumi in pseudo panic. “Are you sure this is safe? It sounds science-y.”

Iwaizumi elbows him.

“That’s because _it is_. They help you with any Spectrum problem. Paired or unpaired people go there.”

Oikawa raises his eyebrows and leans against Iwaizumi’s side.

“Oh, really?” Oikawa hums, a light note of teasing in his voice. “I didn’t know that.”

“It’s because you weren’t listening to you when I explained it to you.”

Oikawa ignores him. “How did you get me an appointment anyway? You’re so secretive, Iwa-chan~”

Iwaizumi purses his lips, looking away.

_It’s actually my appointment supposedly but these few days it seems you need it more than I do, I’ll do something about it—_

“I’m a miracle worker for dumbasses like you.” Iwaizumi says instead.

Oikawa gasps. “Iwa-chan! Very rude!” he says, sounding scandalized.

“You’re paying anyway so I have to put up with it.” Iwaizumi retorts quickly as they round up the corner. He walks on ahead as soon as the building of the facility is on sight so he can avoid Oikawa’s swift comeback.

“Oh my, that’s an atrocious fish,” Oikawa comments as they start towards the facility and he catches eye of the huge fountain, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

Iwaizumi chides him with a look.

“Don’t be rude.”

They make it up the path, encountering several people coming out of the main doors, people whose faces Iwaizumi thankfully does not remember seeing from his last trip here. Oikawa starts _ooh_ ing and _aah_ ing the moment they make it through the glass doors.

“Oh my gosh, Iwa-chan! Look at that amazing chandelier! Are those gems? It has so much dark gray on it!”

 _Red_. Iwaizumi wants to tell him, though he smiles nevertheless.

Oikawa looks down on him, grinning.

“What do you suppose it is, Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi bites back another smile and shrugs.

“Red, probably. Or at least a shade of it. It’s not too dark to be violet, not too light to be orange.” Okay that was probably too much into it.

Oikawa coos, impressed but then his attention is diverted elsewhere again.

“They have so much paintings Iwa-chan! That’s so amazing, oh I like that one…I can’t see that one very well, but it looks nice. It’s a woman, yes?”

Oikawa is tugging at his sleeve, prompting Iwaizumi to focus on the painting Oikawa is pointing at.

“Hmm?” Iwaizumi follows Oikawa’s finger and sees that it’s the beautiful painting over the front desk.

The painting is still as striking as he’s seen the first time and Iwaizumi would have felt the appreciation longer if his gaze had not dropped down and sees Tsukishima staring straight at him looking bored that Iwaizumi flinches in a start.

“Oooh, Iwa-chan, look at this! This is a…er, my mom has a picture of this…hmm,” Oikawa has moved to closer to the front desk it seems, to the side really as he pokes at a flat wheel sculpture that Iwaizumi didn’t notice the other time he was here.

“A color wheel,” Tsukishima replies in a monotone.

Oikawa snaps his fingers.

“YES! Yes, that’s the one. _Color wheel_ …” Oikawa muses, poking at the wheel again and Iwaizumi walks over to him, wondering if it’s even okay to play with the sculptures on display.

“Thank you, Megane-kun.” Oikawa whispers to Tsukishima who snorts.

Oikawa sticks his tongue out in concentration then gives the color wheel a tug, making it spin and then the colors of Spectrum flashes in Iwaizumi’s eyes.

Iwaizumi lays a hand on Oikawa’s shoulder. Might as well put a stop to it before he breaks anything.

“Oikawa, don’t do that.” Iwaizumi says.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Tsukishima says, helpfully. “It’s supposed to be interactive or whatever.”

It only makes it sound as though Oikawa’s a child or something but nevertheless, Oikawa grins at Iwaizumi triumphantly and gives the wheel another spin.

Iwaizumi sighs, resigned and turns to Tsukishima instead who’s now leaning on the glass top with his elbows, twirling a pen in hand.

“Oh, where’s the other guy with you?” Iwaizumi asks him, remembering the orange-haired one from before.

Tsukishima clicks his tongue in a disapproving manner.

“Somewhere around with his pair. They’re lousy with work I don’t particularly care.”

Oikawa moves away from the color wheel and now leans on the glass top, looking at Tsukishima in scrutiny.

“You look younger than me,” Oikawa comments.

Tsukishima _tsk_ s and taps his fingers on the glass top.

“That’s because I am. I’m still a first year, you know,” his eyes flicker towards Iwaizumi. “Hey, are you here for your thing or what.”

Iwaizumi straightens up, suddenly alert.

“Ah, yes! The appointment yeah…” he rubs the back of his neck. “It’s just the thing however, there’s _another_ thing…”

Tsukishima shakes his head, narrows his eyes, not understanding and Oikawa looks at them back and forth, confused.

Iwaizumi turns to Oikawa and then hurriedly goes, “Say, Oikawa can you go around for a bit? Go see the other paintings or displays or whatever, I gotta talk to Tsukishima over here for a second—about the appointment, yeah…”

As expected, Oikawa immediately complains.

“Hehh, Iwa-chan you’re ditching me aren’t you!”

“No! What the hell.”

“You are! You’re going to ditch me!”

“I’m not going to—”

“There’s a life-sized, hexagonal rubik’s cube in the lounge,” Tsukishima puts in, pointing to his left, wherever the general direction of the lounge may be. “It’s interactive.”

“Oh, isn’t that nice.” Iwaizumi says.

Oikawa tosses his hair back and scoffs.

“ _Fine_! Be that way, Iwa-chan,” he grumbles and starts walking off, still grumbling audibly.

“I’ll meet you there, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi calls out to him and Oikawa faces him one last time, sticking his tongue out before disappearing in a corner.

The moment he’s out of sight, Iwaizumi raises a finger facing Tsukishima.

“Before you say anything—”

“No, no I think I know where you’re getting here,” Tsukishima says, smirking. “He’s blind, you’re not, he’s got no idea you’re pairs and you’ve been misinformed all your life you never got around to tell him and you’re going to use us to confess to him, hmm?”

Iwaizumi sets his hand down and covers his face with it.

“Well actually, until you got to the last bit—”

Tsukishima snorts. “Yeah, I got it. You’re not the only person going through that it’s no longer a surprise to me.”

“I’m sure.”

“Yeah, so about your appointment…”

Iwaizumi exhales. “Yeah about that, is it possible that I give him the appointment instead?”

Tsukishima raises his eyebrows and he stops, already in the middle of taking out Iwaizumi’s folder from the files.

“Huh?”

“He’s going to take the appointment instead of me. He’s paying and all is that a problem?”

Tsukishima blinks at him lazily, his tinted glasses reflecting the shimmery surface of the chandelier up high.

“Well, that’s no problem,” Tsukishima says. “However, he’s going to be using your folder for a while since it’s kind of needed and it takes about a week to get your own folder. You can throw out your form if you want though, it’s inside, then ask him to fill up the application form.” He slides the dark gray (blue) folder towards Iwaizumi and then procures an empty application form from underneath the glass top and hands it to Iwaizumi too.

“Thank you.” Iwaizumi says, hugging the folder to his side.

“Hey,” Tsukishima says. “Will you ever tell him?”

Iwaizumi’s careful with his words.

“He needs this more,” he says. “I need some more time.”

_I took too long to prepare._

 

Iwaizumi’s rather horrified when he spots Oikawa by the life-sized rubik’s cube at the lounge, _arguing_ with someone so obviously younger though he’s Oikawa’s size and is currently spitting out obliviously argumentative replies.

 _What on earth_ , Iwaizumi thinks as nearby, he sees the orange-haired receptionist Tsukishima was with and at the moment, he’s jumping up and down as he cheers for the black-haired guy Oikawa is quarreling with.

“I’m just saying, Oikawa-san that I could help you with the colors since you can’t see them—” Black-haired guy says, meaning well. A very horrible decision, really.

Oikawa laughs, full of malice.

“Oh? Tobio-chan, I’ve been telling you for the past five minutes after you introduced yourself that I can do this on my own! Leave me alone!”

“You’re taking a long time and I thought you were having trouble so I, a staff of Makulay Facility—”

“You can do it, Kageyama-kun!” Orange hair exclaims. Oh jesus.

Amazingly though, the people passing by doesn’t even find this whole scene odd, some are even smiling at the banter and Iwaizumi thinks there’s got to be something wrong with them.

Iwaizumi stomps forward and seizes Oikawa’s arm before he can do anything.

“What the hell are you doing, Oikawa?” Iwaizumi hisses.

Oikawa gasps when he sees Iwaizumi and immediately, he’s clutching on his arm.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa gripes, jabbing a finger toward the other person’s direction accusingly. “He’s so stubborn! He won’t leave me alone!”

Black-haired guy blinks in innocent confusion then steps forward to Iwaizumi, bows and straightens.

“I’m Kageyama Tobio,” he introduces stiffly. “I’m supposed to help guests when they need it.”

“But I don’t need your help!” Oikawa whines, sticking his tongue out at him and pulling down an eyelid mockingly. What the hell.

Iwaizumi elbows him. “Quit it,” he turns back to Kageyama, feeling sorry. “Hey, thanks a lot for the help but he says he doesn’t need it, now let’s get going,” he eyes Oikawa knowingly at the last bit, eyebrows rising.

“Ah! I remember you!” Orange hair—Hinata?—points to Iwaizumi enthusiastically.

“Me too,” Iwaizumi says. “I also remember Tsukishima looking for you a while ago.”

Iwaizumi feels just a little bit too amused as Hinata realizes the possible outcome of the situation, his exuberant expression crumpling and with a quick, “Tobio, Tsukishima will kill us, let’s _go_!” he grabs Kageyama along with him as they start racing for the front desk.

Oikawa scoffs haughtily as he watches them go and Iwaizumi is quick to smack him on the head lightly with the folder he’s holding.

Oikawa starts making a face and Iwaizumi cuts him off.

“Don’t give me that, what the hell was that you were arguing with someone you _don’t_ even know, you idiot!”

“But he was so annoying, Iwa-chan because he says he knows how to fix that rubik’s cube better than I do blah blah blah just because he can see colors,”

Iwaizumi snorts. He goes toward a bench close to the window and Oikawa trots behind him, pouting.

“Iwa-chan! At least be sympathetic—oh, is that my file or whatever?” Oikawa begins, sitting down beside Iwaizumi before taking the folder to inspect.

And then Iwaizumi remembers it’s his name on the folder still and his file is in there with the aptly checked box for Chrome-sighted easily distinguishable in one of the boxed choices.

Needless to say, Iwaizumi snags the folder back to him as quick as a mongoose, startling Oikawa the most.

“NO, I mean yes,” Iwaizumi says, tucking the folder to his other side much to Oikawa’s bewilderment. “I mean, yeah, it’s your file, your file’s in here yeah but…also not,”

“Huh?”

Iwaizumi frowns at Oikawa who’s also scowling back, though he’s baffled.

“Ugh, shut up,” Iwaizumi says, finally and digging into the folder, making sure Oikawa doesn’t see, and takes out the empty application form and a pen he somehow finds in his sweater pocket.

“What do you mean, Iwa-chan is that my file or not my file you are very confusing sometimes is it puberty—?”

“Be quiet, Oikawa. Fill this up so we can get to your damn appointment,”

“But—”

Iwaizumi runs a hand through his hair, exasperated.

“That’s your file but the folder’s mine,”

“How come you get a fancy folder?”

“If you’re not done by five minutes you can kiss that appointment goodbye.”

There’s a small gasp and then the sound of quick scribbling as Oikawa starts filling the form up, using the bench as a support.

“You’re so mean, Iwa-chan, you’re meaner than that guy Tobio-chan…” Oikawa grumbles.

“Anything for you, Oikawa.” Iwaizumi says, sarcastically.

Iwaizumi hears faint footsteps and before he can look up and see who it is, a very familiar voice speaks out.

“Ah, Iwaizumi…?”

Iwaizumi looks up so quickly, Oikawa too stops writing for a second to see. It’s Sugawara, looking a little doubtful and he’s facing Iwaizumi’s overall direction. He’s tilting his head, smiling despite the doubt and his eyes, still the prettiest brown. Sugawara’s holding his white cane in one hand and Iwaizumi immediately feels the creep of embarrassment in remembering.

“Hi, Suga,” Iwaizumi says.

Sugawara relaxes with a sigh, placing a hand on his chest.

“It is you, thank heavens I thought I got someone else,” Sugawara chuckles. “I haven’t gotten used to your voice see. Are you here for an appointment?”

Iwaizumi smiles. “Oh yes, but not for me. I’m with someone actually. He’s beside me. Suga this is Oikawa,” Iwaizumi looks at Oikawa who looks as though he’s marveling at the sight of Sugawara. Iwaizumi nudges him. “Oikawa, this is Suga,”

“Hi,” Oikawa breathes.

Sugawara turns to Oikawa’s direction this time, amazingly accurate as he extends a hand which Oikawa takes.

“Oh,” Sugawara says as soon as Oikawa lets go. “Are you pairs?”

Iwaizumi wants to die.

“Ah, actually we—” he starts saying at the same time Oikawa starts stammering and shaking his hands, “Oh haha, no, I-I’m too pretty for Iwa-chan!”

God Iwaizumi wants to kick him.

Sugawara chuckles. “My mistake, I’m sorry, it’s just somehow…hmm…”

Iwaizumi has to veer the subject away from this.

“It’s no problem,” he says quickly. “W-Where’s Daichi?”

Success. Sugawara grins as though he’s hiding a secret.

“We were in Akiteru’s clinic earlier and Daichi was talking to him and told me not to stray and here I am,” he looks rather pleased with himself that he managed to wander off though Iwaizumi’s entirely unsure how far the clinics are supposedly.

Oikawa tugs on Iwaizumi’s sleeve and leans closer to him conspirationally.

“Iwa-chan, he’s really cute,” he whispers as though looking at a rabbit. Or maybe a bunny. Or a baby deer.

Iwaizumi can’t even hide a smile.

The whispered comment is louder than intended and Sugawara chuckles, delighted.

“How very nice of you, Oikawa,” Sugawara says.

Oikawa jumps. “It is so!”

“There you are, Suga!”

There’s a sound of quick footsteps and Iwaizumi and Oikawa turn their attention to the newcomer. Iwaizumi recognizes Daichi, who seems tremendously relieved to see Sugawara there, who has faced toward the sound of his voice.

“Daichi,” Sugawara giggles in amusement. “Oh, you found me.”

Daichi sighs, walking closer and putting a hand on Sugawara’s shoulder.

“This isn’t hide and seek, you know,” he says, eyeing Iwaizumi next and blinking. “Oh, wait you’re Iwaizumi. Hey.”

Oikawa zeroes on Iwaizumi with raised eyebrows that are clearly going _how come you know so many people here_. Iwaizumi’s trying to ignore that gaze and he smiles at Daichi innocently.

“Oh yeah, hey.” he says.

“DAICHII!!” A voice calls out again, this time in a shout that makes Sugawara jump.

Unsurprisingly, it’s Kuroo and when he sees Daichi he bounds for him, Daichi immediately steering himself and Sugawara away so Kuroo ends up hurtling toward Iwaizumi who shrieks. Oikawa scrambles away hurriedly.

“YO, whoa that was intense!” Kuroo yells, straightening himself up just in time, running his hands several times through his hair. Iwaizumi, meanwhile, is stiff from surprise and quickly decides on never approaching Kuroo in the next few years.

Daichi is frowning at Kuroo intensely while Sugawara is tugging at his sleeves asking what’s happening. Oikawa takes a seat again as soon as Kuroo goes to pestering Daichi.

“Wow, Iwa-chan, who’s that?” Oikawa asks, trying to continue his form.

Iwaizumi stares at Kuroo who, come to think of it, is looking ditzy than he was the other time.

“We…er, are not close,” Iwaizumi says.

“Oh yeah!” Kuroo says brightly, facing Iwaizumi again. “Aren’t you Iwaizumi? Have you seen Kenma?”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow. “Why would I know…?”

Daichi smacks Kuroo in the shoulder and gives Iwaizumi an apologetic look.

“Don’t listen to him; he’s being dumb at the moment.” Daichi says.

“You’re just a little hazy at the moment,” Kuroo says, wagging his fingers. “A little swirl of colors, next I will see you will be entirely pink and then orange and then…”

“Daichi,” Sugawara says, pleasantly. “What did you do to Kuroo?”

Daichi inhales sharply, indignant.

“Nothing! He ate too much chocolate!”

Kuroo stops mumbling and then playfully smacks Daichi on the shoulder.

“OW fu—” Daichi yelps.

Kuroo looks at Iwaizumi again, smiling lazily.

“Hey, Iwaizumi, you haven’t seen Kenma around, have you?”

“I for one,” Sugawara chirps before Iwaizumi can answer. “Haven’t seen him.”

There’s a beat of silence and then Daichi’s groaning into his hands and Sugawara and Oikawa are laughing.

“I haven’t seen Kenma around no,” Iwaizumi says, trying to ineffectively hide a grin as his unknowing soulmate beside him is still being wracked with giggles.

Kuroo sighs dramatically and he pats Daichi again, this time softer.

“Right,” Kuroo says. “Gotta go and find mi amore see you!”

He struts away, going back to where he came from and everyone’s eyes follow after him in silent puzzlement.

“Has he gone?” Sugawara says, finally.

“Hmm,” Oikawa hums and Sugawara chuckles.

“Is he always like that?” Iwaizumi might as well ask.

Daichi shakes his head. “No actually. He’s bearable most days. Like I said, he ate too much chocolate. Twice the dose needed, apparently.”

Iwaizumi has no idea what they’re going on about but since Sugawara is grinning, it can’t possibly be too bad. Oikawa leans over to Iwaizumi then, waving the form in front of his face.

“Iwa-chan, I’m done.” Oikawa says, smiling wide.

“Oh, you have an appointment?” Daichi says, raising his eyebrows.

“Don’t let us stop you. You can ask Tsukishima for directions to the clinics.” Sugawara says helpfully.

Iwaizumi and Oikawa both stand, intending to go now and they both smile at the other pair, intending to leave.

“Right, we’ll do just that, thanks.” Iwaizumi says.

 

“So, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, casually as they’re both walking back to the front desk.

Iwaizumi sighs, already knowing what he’s going to be asking.

“Okay, I’ve been here before just one time that’s why they know me. I just bumped into them, that’s all.” Iwaizumi says.

Oikawa blinks, surprised and then he stops walking, blocks Iwaizumi’s way and smiles down at him teasingly.

“Oh? I was only going to ask if Daichi and Suga are pairs or maybe you had something you were hiding?”

Iwaizumi bites back a remark. He has to or else he might just ruin everything.

So instead, he pushes Oikawa out of the way, scoffing.

“Shut up, Shittykawa. Of course, they are obviously.” Iwaizumi grunts and he can hear Oikawa knowingly go, “ _Right_.”

The jerk.

Tsukishima directs them to the hallway going to the clinics in an awfully apathetic tone of voice. Either he was just bored as he usually seems to be or he’s just doing his best to avoid looking at Kageyama and Hinata, occupied with guests and were looking at each other now and then with a secretive wink.

(“Maybe Megane-kun is just lonely, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa tells Iwaizumi conversationally as they make their way to the clinics, trying to find the clinic of their Swatcher. “His soulmate isn’t around.”

“You’ve only been here,” Iwaizumi counters him, incredulous and he rolls his eyes.

Oikawa only shrugs leniently.)

 

“Wait here.”

“Heeey, hold on a moment,” Oikawa complains, hands on his hips as he looks at Iwaizumi who has his hand around the doorknob.

They’re outside their Swatcher, Dr. Akiteru’s office now. His nameplate is attached on the door, a crescent moon embossed next to his name and the name of the facility.

“What are you planning, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asks, glowering though he seems genuinely curious.

“Don’t be so suspicious I just want to talk to him first, that’s all,” Iwaizumi says. “Now stay put for five minutes.”

Iwaizumi doesn’t wait for Oikawa’s reply. He knocks twice and enters, sees Akiteru’s secretary nod at him expectantly.

“I’m—er, my friend is the next guest,” Iwaizumi tells the secretary who checks a timetable plastered on the desk.

“Oh yes, you’re Iwaizumi Hajime?” She says.

“There’s a name change actually because that’s me and my friend…”

The secretary smiles in understanding.

“No problem. That’ll be easy to change. Where’s your friend?”

Well that didn’t take long. Iwaizumi excuses himself and gets back out to retrieve Oikawa, who’s unsurprisingly winking at random passerby.

Iwaizumi’s sigh is suffering.

“Ah, Iwa-chan! Are you done doing your secrets~” Oikawa says, leaning on Iwaizumi’s side.

Iwaizumi swats him away.

“There are no secrets. Let’s get your ass in there now.” Iwaizumi says, grabbing hold of Oikawa’s arm and dragging him inside anyway.

 

“You can accompany him inside if you want,” The secretary offers. Iwaizumi knows she’s being kind. She’s handled this mess quite well after all. However that offer was definitely unnecessary. Definitely unnecessary for emerging feelings yeah.

So Iwaizumi, chuckling as casually as he can, quickly goes, “Oh, it’s fine, he can manage—”

It takes Oikawa about 0.01 seconds to hang on Iwaizumi’s arm like a limpet.

“That’s a marvelous idea!” he exclaims. “Doctors you know? Make me feel queasy I do need some moral support! Iwa-chan is the best moral support, did you know…?”

Iwaizumi’s going to kick him. He swears he will he really will the moment the secretary turns around. Asshole just has to pull that kind of thing every time there’s an audience—

The secretary smiles wide, satisfied.

“Good to know, Dr. Akiteru will see you now then.” she motions where and then walks off.

This gives Iwaizumi the chance to finally smack Oikawa’s shoulder.

“OW, Iwa-chan you swine—”

“Ooh, you think you’re very adorable,” Iwaizumi ribs and Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him.

Moments later, they’re both sitting in front of Akiteru Tsukishima’s desk, Akiteru looking at both of them with a very warm smile and somehow Iwaizumi can just sense why he’s Saeko’s soulmate. They seem to fit in together—Saeko’s resilient edge of a personality, even on the first meeting, and Akiteru’s kindhearted welcome.

Akiteru has the same yellow hair in the photographs Iwaizumi saw. He has a few photo frames on his desk, one with him and Saeko and another with the younger Tsukishima who’s presently sulking at the front desk. He’s pretty much the photographer Saeko mentioned him to be because the walls of his office are also lined with several photographs, making the entire setting more homely if anything.

Coincidentally, Akiteru’s voice is as warm as his smile and he seems pretty patient too, which is good considering he’s going to be talking to Oikawa a lot.

“Here we are,” Akiteru says, still with a smile. “It’s lovely to see you. I’m Akiteru. What could I help you with?” he sweeps a look from Iwaizumi to Oikawa.

“Just for him, actually,” Iwaizumi says, pointing towards Oikawa.

Akiteru looks mildly surprised.

“Oh? Is that right,” he rummages over his drawer and pulls out a folder identical to the one Iwaizumi is holding and Iwaizumi almost gets a heart attack right there when Akiteru skims on what’s inside.

“Ah, I get it now,” Akiteru says, setting the folder down. “You’re the one Kei said who got a name change!” he chuckles. “My bad, that’s why I didn’t recognize. Do you have your file?”

Without a word, Oikawa hands his file, a little dazed.

Akiteru skims his eyes over it once and then places it inside the folder he set down.

“Alright I have questions,” Akiteru asks, smiling at Oikawa.

Oikawa blinks. “Yes?”

“I want to ask about your Spec Test results,” Akiteru says.

This time, Oikawa clearly fidgets, suddenly uncomfortable. Iwaizumi always knows when to tune things out. He clears his throat and stands.

“I’ll wait outside,” he says, patting Oikawa’s shoulder gently before nodding to Akiteru and walking out.

 

“He’s your best friend.” Akiteru muses as soon as Iwaizumi disappears. He doesn’t say it like a question.

“Yeah,” Oikawa mumbles.

“Hmm…his name is on the folder I guess he might have given his appointment to you.”

Oikawa blinks. “Eh?”

“His file doesn’t state any problem. I guess he just had questions. You, on the other hand,” Akiteru taps his fingers on the table.

Oikawa’s smile is starting to become hard to maintain and laces his hands together. He looks down.

“I’ve always been PEA-deficit. ‘You don’t seem to have much Phenylethylamine,’ they would tell me,” Oikawa says. “Can’t distinguish colors even with a Swatch, can’t even guess what shade it’s supposed to be, ‘There’s a big chance you—’”

“Might not see color if you meet your pair?” Akiteru finishes, gently.

Oikawa gestures exasperatedly with his hands.

“And of course I can’t tell anyone! I couldn’t even tell my mother I need my knee braces replaced I suck at conveying things—”

Akiteru raises his hands calmingly. “Hey, I understand. No one’s going to force you to say things you don’t want to say,” he inclines his head, looking at Oikawa still. “It’s pretty hard I know. At fifteen years old they start giving Spec Tests and you aren’t even sure how to react to those and at least ten percent of people your age will realize something is wrong and you can’t do anything about it because you don’t know how you should deal with it.”

Oikawa focuses on his words so hard he’s starting to space out on everything else. Akiteru doesn’t seem to notice because he continues, “We’re all born blind to Spectrum aren’t we? When I became a Swatcher I was still coined Colorblind which was hard work considering my field involved colors and all they teach you in school is how to identify a color you have no idea what is by its value and intensity—which is tricky! Because some colors have near identical values and intensities so I understand if sometimes you feel inferior even when you’re trying so hard,”

Akiteru raises his eyebrows. “Do you understand where I’m getting at, Oikawa?”

Oikawa runs a hand through his hair.

“I guess so. I don’t even know why I have to be here, honestly, Iwa-chan he insists…”

Akiteru shrugs.

“Perhaps you’re becoming distracted,” That has Oikawa freezing for a second and Akiteru looks at him with an expression that says _see?_

“Focusing on problematic things can affect your general life you know.”

Oikawa huffs, tossing his hair back.

“I know that.”

Akiteru settles back on his chair, smiling.

“But! I’m here to help sort your problem out okay? You’re told me it’s PEA-deficit— Phenylethylamine, rather. It’s probably that. You know it’s PEA which triggers seeing Spectrum, it accumulates over time until you encounter your pair, or your soulmate, if you will, that’s why we hold Spectrum Tests to measure the probability when you will meet your pair.”

Oikawa watches as Akiteru holds up two pens on the table, mimicking people. Oikawa suddenly feels as though he’s back to being twelve years old.

“However,” Akiteru continues, tapping the pens to get Oikawa’s attention. “When one of the pair passes,” he lays one pen down on the table, leaving only one upright. “It triggers great negative emotion to the living pair and Phenylethylamine decreases greatly, and so Spectrum leaves them,”

It’s a sad, sad reality, Oikawa thinks. He knows though, some fortunate people who are somehow born into the world with two intended soulmates that they only come to after one dies. Not as if Oikawa would want that anyway.

“B-But, you know, what if…” Oikawa mumbles, twiddling with his fingers. “Not that I’d actually be too worried but if I never meet my…”

Akiteru blinks. “If you never meet your soulmate? Well you’re still very young after all and I do know people who are legally paired Colorblinds—”

Oikawa shakes his head, suddenly petulant.

“ _I want to see_.”

Akiteru purses his lips for a second and then slowly, he nods.

“Of course, we have just the thing.”

 

“Oh, I remember you!”

Iwaizumi starts, not noticing someone approaching and relaxes when he sees Saeko, in her white lab coat, smiling wide and waving a folder.

“Saeko-san,” Iwaizumi greets, nodding.

Saeko chuckles cheerily.

“Iwaizumi-kun, lovely to see you again. Why are you here outside? Waiting for your turn?” Saeko opens the door to Akiteru’s clinic, motioning for Iwaizumi to come inside. “Come in!”

Iwaizumi rubs the back of his neck but he follows Saeko inside nevertheless.

“I’m waiting for someone actually.”

“Oh, excellent, I was going to give Akiteru some files—ah! Hello, dear.”

They’ve just closed the door when Akiteru and Oikawa gets out of Akiteru’s clinic. Saeko waves at her pair brightly, walking up to him as Oikawa approaches Iwaizumi holding a good-sized bar of…something Iwaizumi can’t really make out of since it’s covered in foil.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa gripes when Iwaizumi doesn’t notice him immediately.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says and points. “What’s that?”

“Oh!” Oikawa smiles beatifically. “It’s chocolate.”

“Chocolate.”

“Uhuh.”

“Right, whatever,” Iwaizumi sighs resignedly. “Are you done? That was quick; barely over an hour.”

“Iwaizumi-kun,” Akiteru calls after them, waving. “Don’t let Oikawa forget his doses.”

Iwaizumi blinks, raises an eyebrow, clearly confused.

“Excuse me…doses…?”

“My chocolate, Iwa-chan.” Oikawa says as though this is the most obvious thing on earth.

“Um, okay?” Iwaizumi says, bewildered.

“Well then, see you next time, Oikawa.” Akiteru says, finally.

 

They’re walking out of the facility when Iwaizumi finally zeroes in on Oikawa, eyebrows still furrowed in wonder.

“What chocolate…?” He blurts out.

Oikawa laughs at him. Really Iwaizumi wants to kick him sometimes, in appropriate moments like these.

“They’re packed with a dose, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa explains. “To ‘help correct Phenylethylamine production’ apparently. There’s five doses plus two extended ones. Remember that chatty friend of yours in the lounge? Chocolate.”

“Wow, so basically that’s going to help you become more annoying.”

Oikawa inhales sharply, mock affronted.

“Very rude.”

Iwaizumi smirks outwardly, walking on.

Inside, he’s in a battle, yet again for the affections of someone still evolving, healing, working on it and once more, he loses another chance to saying what he wants to say.

 

Oikawa takes his first dose on Monday morning. Odd how the small sized square of chocolate will supposedly help him. Akiteru told him the chocolate taste usually depends on the preference of the guest, in other words it will supposedly taste like your favorite dessert—

(“Oh that’s odd,” Oikawa had said after Akiteru’s explanation.

Akiteru had laughed, shrugging.

“You will learn, people don’t like the same things.”)

—and true enough, the chocolate tastes greatly resembling the milk used in milk bread. Oikawa’s pretty delighted by how this is turning out and had ran out of the room to tell his parents, whom he had explained the situation about a few days back.

It’s all great until Oikawa discovers that Iwaizumi isn’t going to school for the entire morning and all his plans of telling him about the chocolate in ten different ways shatter and that effectively leaves him bored the entire way to school.

Oikawa supposes it’s because it’s just the first take, but even still, he doesn’t feel any different at all. There isn’t a feeling of intensity, of flashing colors that he expects. He doesn’t even feel remotely giggly or anything like Kuroo at all.

Relatively normal, Oikawa almost feels disappointed.

It changes in the afternoon.

 

Oikawa’s walking towards the gym locker rooms after school, later than he usually is so that the others are already at the court, when he hears that Iwaizumi’s arrived for the afternoon to turn up at practice like the diligent ace he is and everything is suddenly buzzing, excitement and delight that Oikawa just drops everything and bounds for the locker room feeling like he could expertly serve for two games straight—

He has to tell Iwa-chan! He has to tell him he didn’t forget his dose today and it was very good but nothing seems different and yet isn’t something supposed to change…?

Oikawa slams the locker room door open, sees Iwaizumi standing there, already in his jersey and his back facing him, by his locker immediately.

“IWA-CHAN!!”

Iwaizumi jumps about a foot in the air, startled and he makes a disgruntled noise. The words Oikawa wants to tell him disappear and he laughs, laughs at Iwa-chan who’s easy to startle, easy to embarrass oh there are so many things he wants to say.

Iwaizumi whips around to face Oikawa then, his expression more surprised than mad at the moment and Oikawa’s laugh cuts abruptly too.

And then the room stands still for a second or two, the room too bright, too white and Oikawa blinks and Iwaizumi is there still, looking at him with an annoyed expression now, his eyebrows knit but _no it’s…_

It’s different, Iwaizumi’s hair is still so, so dark, but the shade of his skin, the hue of his lips, the tinge of his jersey, the color of his shirt, the walls, the floor the locker, the—

Oikawa backs up, closing the door and backing up against it in a trance.

“Oikawa?” Iwaizumi mumbles.

He doesn’t know colors. He knows them in theory. Hypothetically he can guess, whatsoever what shade is supposedly which. This is in theory.

In theory, the world is dark, stark, bland. But in this small shred of reality, not when he can’t tell whatever these shades are supposed to be are too bright and clear and in that one second it matters so much because Iwaizumi’s eyes—

Oikawa doesn’t realize he’s running and practically lunging towards Iwaizumi so quickly, Iwaizumi’s eyes widen when he sees Oikawa jumping towards him and braces his arms out.

“Oikawa—!”

Iwaizumi keens backward when Oikawa hits him and loses his balance, stumbling back down with Oikawa’s weight though on the way down, Oikawa twists so when they fall roughly on the floor with a thud, Oikawa takes most of the blunt, Iwaizumi on top of him.

“ _Oww_ ,” Oikawa whines, rubbing the back of his head. He can’t sit up what with Iwaizumi’s position on top of him.

Iwaizumi’s cheeks are definitely ablaze when he finds his face so close to Oikawa’s who, after grimacing for a few seconds, finally focuses on Iwaizumi so intensely it’s embarrassing. Something passes in his expression—recognition? Awe?—and Iwaizumi finds himself thinking in horror that he really wants to lean down and—

Oikawa breaks into giggles. Really annoying, soft, nose-crumpling giggling that only makes Iwaizumi frown.

“Iwa-chan, you should see your face,” Oikawa says lightheartedly.

Unimpressed, Iwaizumi scoffs and tries controlling his weight, scrambling to get up.

“No, wait!” Oikawa’s hand lashes out, grabbing hold of the hems of Iwaizumi’s track suit, keeping him where he is.

Iwaizumi’s starting to break out in cold sweat, already sweating and not even in practice yet and he taps the hand Oikawa’s holding his track suit with.

“Oikawa, what are you doing?”

Iwaizumi sounds hushed. Or choked.

Oikawa’s looking at him intently, still with that seeking gaze all over Iwaizumi’s face and Iwaizumi doesn’t know what’s wrong. Did he have something on his face? Was it that god awful scar on his forehead again? Did he forget his contacts? Iwaizumi’s sure he put it in this afternoon—

“You weren’t around today,” Oikawa says, voice lowering, his minty breath tickling Iwaizumi’s cheek.

_Oh, bad. This is very bad._

Iwaizumi _has_ to look away he has to stop himself from looking down, Oikawa’s lips forming the words, he _has_ to pry his eyes away, anywhere but—

But Iwaizumi can’t exactly look away. Not when Oikawa’s this close, so fixedly staring, brown eyes so warm, pupils dilated, Iwaizumi can just lean in and…

_No, fuck you, you hold it right there._

“I,” Iwaizumi mumbles. “had errands.”

Oikawa blinks, hand tightening around Iwaizumi’s jacket.

“Oh,” Oikawa tilts his head, his hair mussing against the floor. “I was lonely, Iwa-chan,”

Heart positively jammed in his throat, Iwaizumi chokes out, “I highly doubt that.”

Oikawa chuckles breathily.

“I took my first dose today, did you know?”

“Ah…how’d that go?” _Do we also, maybe, have to talk like this? Can I stand up now you’re too distracting?_

Oikawa’s gaze sweeps around Iwaizumi’s face again.

“I don’t really know.”

Iwaizumi doesn’t really know if it’s him that’s leaning closer or it’s Oikawa who’s leaning upward, noses almost touching, eyes so vivid and so close—

_BANG_

Someone slams into the main door, as in a full body slam that’s so loud it echoes around the empty room a couple of times, Oikawa probably locked that door earlier and that bang has Iwaizumi flying off of him so fast he’s sure he’s never stood up that swiftly his entire life, heart beating in his ears and neck and chest his face is definitely very hot. Oikawa is still lying on the floor, blinking dazedly.

“Hey, Iwaizumi! Still in there?” It’s Matsukawa. Oh, jesus. “You’re not thinking of skipping are you? Have you seen Oikawa? Coach is looking for you guys. Also, why the fuck did you lock the door I nearly bashed my face in,”

Another knock, softer this time, and a light, teasing voice.

“Feel alright, Iwaizumi?” Hanamaki calls out. God Iwaizumi hates them both. He stomps over to the door and opens it wide in one movement.

“I’m here douchebags,” Iwaizumi says then jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Oikawa locked the door.”

They’re both crowding the doorway, what with them being so tall and they have identical smirks when they look at Iwaizumi and then see Oikawa who’s now sitting up, pouting and rubbing his head, not really looking at them.

“Did you have a fight?” Matsukawa drawls.

“A really good fight?” Hanamaki grins.

Iwaizumi’s about to go and make a retort when Oikawa gasps.

All heads turn. Oikawa’s looking at Hanamaki and Matsukawa with a displeased expression.

“Oh, it’s gone,” he says.

Silent question marks fill the air. Hanamaki narrows his eyes, puzzled.

“What the hell’s gone?” Iwaizumi demands.

Oikawa’s lip juts out as he pouts.

“It’s cause you turned away!”

Iwaizumi stiffens, feeling warm. What? _What?_ What is that supposed to _mean?_ Is he serious—

Matsukawa and Hanamaki relax.

“Oho, because you turned away, Iwa-chan,” Hanamaki points out.

“Very ambiguous, Iwa-chan,” Matsukawa adds.

“SHUT UP.”

“You’re very defensive, Iwa-chan,”

“You’re very flustered, Iwa-chan,”

“You’re both assholes, honestly.”

Oikawa hears Hanamaki go _Oooh_ and then, “How dare…”

Oikawa looks down at his hands. Black and white.

Had he imagined it? Was it all just a side effect? But no, really he’s sure he’s really…

He looks at Iwaizumi, now in monotonous color but no, he knows he looks at Iwaizumi and somehow, he sees differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "paola they almost smooched"  
> yep definitely  
> "paola why are you like this"  
> HAHA
> 
> i know very little about PEA only that it's a narcotic produced when you're in in love or when you eat chocolate or anything that gives you a pleased feeling really and it enhances the senses so i was like-  
> but ofc this is fiction and if there are inaccuracies you can always tell me (*u*)b
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	6. Kiiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa remembers Kenma back at the facility. Because his pair can’t see. That’s very generous, very selfless and it makes Oikawa _wonder._  
>  Iwaizumi walks to Oikawa, perplexed with his glazed-over expression.  
> “Oi,” he says.  
> “Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mutters. “You…you’ll tell me right? If, if you meet them? Your…”  
> Oikawa looks to see if Iwaizumi’s expression falters, to give something away. Instead, his entire expression just softens and Oikawa’s chest feels all too tight and warm all of a sudden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Kiiro** 黄色  
>  _Yellow_

Oikawa is staring.

He’s been staring at him for the past twenty minutes, really. They’re in Iwaizumi’s room, Oikawa’s staying over again and they’re supposedly studying. Yes, studying Iwaizumi’s at his desk doing his best to focus on the piece of paper in front of him and Oikawa…

Iwaizumi grits his teeth, his hand tightening around the pencil he’s holding. Oikawa’s lounging on his bed wearing his sweats and though he knows Oikawa is reading, for some reason despite his back facing Oikawa, he can feel intense staring.

Very quickly, he looks over his shoulder.

Oikawa squeaks and hides his face behind the book he’s allegedly reading.

Definitely staring.

Iwaizumi tugs at his collar and exhales. He wonders what’s wrong. It’s been two weeks since Oikawa first took his chocolate or whatever and since then he’s been staring so intently whenever he thinks Iwaizumi doesn’t notice. It should be a nice thought, Oikawa taking notice of him but somehow it also seems he’s noticing things for a different reason and Iwaizumi doesn’t really get it.

Iwaizumi looks really good in several angles, Oikawa thinks to himself as he stares. Even with his back facing him, he somehow still looks attractive. Oikawa has known this all this time of course, it’s not hard to when Iwaizumi’s always around him, still it’s pretty easier to shove it all under the pretense of Iwaizumi’s nonexistent ugliness than having to admit it out loud.

Ever since that fleeting moment of seeing him in color, Oikawa had been more studious with identifying colors. Trying to know more, trying to see more, wanting to know the color of the shirt Iwaizumi is wearing right now, the color of his skin, his lips, his eyes…

“So,” Iwaizumi says suddenly, not turning around and Oikawa squeaks, hides behind the book he’s not really reading again as he did moments ago when Iwaizumi caught him staring.

“I’m going to pretend you aren’t staring at me intently like some pervert and ask instead if you’ve finished reading your notes,” Iwaizumi continues.

Oikawa huffs, petulant. “I have it memorized, Iwa-chan,”

“Okay, sure,” Iwaizumi replies, disbelieving. There’s a beat of silence broken by Iwaizumi tapping his pen on his desk repeatedly. “Anyway, it’s been what, two weeks since?”

Two weeks of Oikawa hovering over him, Iwaizumi supposes if it weren’t for the fact that he’s known him nearly his entire life it would’ve been creepy. Still, Oikawa had always had that calculative eye though Iwaizumi is taking wild guesses why the hell Oikawa’s going all interestedly calculating on _him_ now.

Oikawa grunts as a reply and Iwaizumi assumes it as assent.

“When are you going back to the facility?” Iwaizumi tries sounding nonchalant as he asks. Of course he has to be nonchalant about this. It can’t have a quick effect did it, those chocolates? Oikawa hasn’t really answered any question about it either, merely burying his head in books about color and Spectrum that he can’t even see.

“In two weeks for the second dose,” Oikawa says.

Iwaizumi plays with a strand of his hair behind his ear, his thoughts about continuing homework long gone.

“H-How is it going?” _Are you feeling any different? Do you still think you’re unpaired? I’m still having a hard time wondering how I could tell you—_

_Are you seeing colors? Why are you so fixated with reading about them now? Does it even work that fast?_

_Can you see me?_

Oikawa fidgets on Iwaizumi’s bed and Iwaizumi finally drops his façade of studying and turns around to face Oikawa whom Iwaizumi finds out has sat up, blankets bundled around him. Oikawa is biting his lip, looking somehow…shy? Shy! In what dimension—

“Well, this one time I swore I…” Oikawa says, quiet. “I think I might have seen just the slightest hue…”

Iwaizumi stiffens.

He tries not to inhale sharply, he really does so in his attempt to stopping the sound of his surprise, he ends up choking on his own spit and coughing.

Oikawa bolts out of the bed immediately, astonished and he leaps toward Iwaizumi, still sitting on the chair and coughing, to pat his back.

“Iwa-chan! What’s wrong—?”

Iwaizumi slaps Oikawa’s pats away.

“I’m— _ack_ —fine! Fine, I’m fine,” Iwaizumi gasps. _Damn it_. “Did you say you can see _colors_?”

Oikawa blinks and sighs and proceeds to sit down at the edge of the bed. He rubs the back of his head sheepishly, smiling slightly.

“Actually just that one time. It was pretty quick, went away afterwards hey remember that time I knocked you down?” Oikawa chuckles and looks excited, his eyes sparkling. Meanwhile, Iwaizumi is practically gripping the edge of the chair in anticipation.

“What about it?” Iwaizumi eggs on as Oikawa gestures with his hands vaguely.

“It was just a glimpse and I saw different shades! Your shirt, Iwa-chan! And your track suit!” he bursts out happily, pulling Iwaizumi’s chair towards him for emphasis while Iwaizumi is definitely breaking out cold sweat.

“And the locker room vision in general and,” Oikawa looks at Iwaizumi directly, keeping him in place with his smile. “Your eyes.”

Iwaizumi looks away.

“Oh.”

Oikawa deflates. “And then afterwards it disappeared. That really sucks, Iwa-chan,”

Iwaizumi doesn’t relax until he lets his breath go.

“Well,” Iwaizumi says. “That’s really…I mean, good for you then.”

“ _No_ , Iwa-chan!” Oikawa whines, flopping back onto the bed noisily. “I still don’t know what the colors are, what’s the point,” he sounds devastated. “I don’t even know why I saw that, I haven’t even met my soulmate!”

Reflexively, Iwaizumi kicks him hard on the shins, annoyed. Oikawa sits back upright, pouting.

“ _Ouch_ , Iwa-chan, you ugly—”

“That’s what Phenylethylamine does right?” Iwaizumi says briskly. “Boosts up senses or what? Probably makes you see flashes of color too—don’t be dumb do you listen to Akiteru-san at all?”

“Of course I did!”

“Right.”

Iwaizumi turns back to his notes, normal breathing pattern back and heart already steadying.

Or so he thinks.

“Hey, Iwa-chan, tell me something,” Oikawa mumbles.

“Hmm.” Iwaizumi mumbles because he doesn’t know what’s coming.

“What’s the color of your eyes?”

Iwaizumi won’t choke this time. No he won’t—

“Which one?” Iwaizumi clears his throat anyway, just to be sure.

A pillow is thrown onto his back by Oikawa who starts whining. Iwaizumi shoots him a glare.

“The real color, Iwa-chan! The real!” Oikawa peals.

Another pillow.

“Ow, fuck, stop it! It’s green okay? _Green_.”

Oikawa stops mid-throwing another pillow, a look of satisfaction crossing his face. He lowers the pillow in his hand and hugs it.

“Green,” Oikawa says, smiling slowly. “Iwa-chan, what’s green?”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes.

“You had to ask _me_.”

“Well you’re good with guesstimating colors!” Oikawa hums. “Ah! What else is green? Iwa-chan, what else?”

Iwaizumi rubs his temples, doesn’t answer for a moment. And then Oikawa whacks him with the pillow, forcing Iwaizumi to turn.

“Tell me Iwa-chan! Tell _meeee_ ,”

“Stop—! _Trashykawa_ —!”

“TELL ME,”

Iwaizumi takes hold of Oikawa’s wrists in one hand and the pillow on the other and then forces him to sit down, glowering.

“Alright, alright!” Iwaizumi finally relents, leaning close until Oikawa, who’s grinning, shuts up.

When Oikawa settles, Iwaizumi finally lets go. He stands in front of Oikawa now, looking increasingly exasperated.

“Leaves are green,” Iwaizumi says, a little reluctant. Oikawa however, looks very enthralled.

“Really?” he gasps. “That’s cool, what else?”

“I don’t know Oikawa ask someone who can actually see—”

“But you’re good at colors, Iwa-chan!”

Iwaizumi makes a face, mirroring disgust.

“Those aliens of yours are green.”

Oikawa blinks. And then he’s bursting out in laughter, rolling back on the bed while Iwaizumi looks on with a monotonous, unimpressed expression.

“AHAHAHA—”

Iwaizumi clicks his tongue. Oikawa seems _too_ delighted about this. He stops a few moments later, still grinning.

“Are you done?” Iwaizumi snaps.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, beaming.

Iwaizumi narrows his eyes suspiciously.

“What, Trashykawa,”

Oikawa makes a displeased noise. “You’ve called me so many mean names today!”

“What’s new,”

“I’m going to ask anyway,” Oikawa does his best impression of adorable pleading that usually steers his fans into doing whatever he wants. “Help me identify colors.”

Needless to say, Iwaizumi panics and proceeds to exclaim, “No way!” unintentionally.

Oikawa looks distraught by this immediate answer.

“But _Iwa-chan_ ,”

“No, no, no, no…” Iwaizumi says in a litany, standing up and making his way to the door to escape.

“IWA- _CHAN_ —”

“Bye Oikawa—FUCK—”

It takes Oikawa half a second to sit up and launch himself onto Iwaizumi’s back and they both fall onto the carpet roughly with a yell and a various choice of swearing.

When they finally roll around, Oikawa’s straddling Iwaizumi with a look of triumph on his face.

“Get off me, Oikawa!” Iwaizumi growls, flailing.

“Say you will first!”

“No!”

“It’s not nice to be so little and so angry!”

“I WILL KICK YOUR ASS—”

Oikawa grins. “Yes?”

“Still a no.”

Oikawa pouts for real this time, his lower lip jutting out.

“But, Iwa-chan…” he whines.

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes and finally seeing a chance, he lifts himself up by the elbows, quickly grabbing Oikawa’s collar and headbutting him very hard.

Of course. Of course _it hurt like a_ —

“OW OW OW—” Oikawa yells, immediately flying off of Iwaizumi, jumping around with two hands against his forehead and his expression distorted in pain.

Iwaizumi takes a look at him and lays back down on the floor, throbbing pain on his forehead making him a little dizzy. Oikawa is still whimpering and he sits down on the edge of the bed.

“That was out of nowhere, Iwa-chan!” he complains tearfully.

“You wouldn’t get off,” Iwaizumi says simply.

“You could’ve asked nicely,”

“I did.”

“No you didn’t!”

There’s a knock on the door and they both go still.

“Not too loud, boys.” Iwaizumi’s mother calls out before walking away, her light footsteps becoming faint.

Oikawa and Iwaizumi remain still and silent for a few seconds more and then Iwaizumi starts snickering. He covers his face with the back of his arm.

Oikawa bristles, making a noise of complaint.

“Still a no.” Iwaizumi says.

“You’re being mean, Iwa-chan this is why you’re not pretty.”

Iwaizumi scoffs and bites his lip.

 _Yeah, that’s probably what this is_. He thinks miserably.

 

It’s Takeru’s birthday a few days afterwards and Oikawa, much to his disbelief, nearly forgot about it for the first time in his life if it hadn’t been for his sister and her husband who had come to their house with party plans. And with Takeru’s insistence, it went without saying that the entire team will be invited regardless of the fact that it’s going to be a party for kids.

The thing is, Oikawa forgets to mention it until the night of Takeru’s party.

But since he’s a chill, mature person who does _not_ get frazzled when he forgets things he shouldn’t be forgetting. Oikawa announces the invitation when they’re all gathered in the locker room after practice.

Fortunately, they seemed interested enough when Oikawa declares they’re not going anywhere but his house tonight for a kiddie party.

“If there are games, I’m in.” Matsukawa says.

“Oh, Issei, you read my mind.” Hanamaki adds and they both high five.

Oikawa stares at them disapprovingly.

Yahaba chuckles. “Is that why Iwaizumi-san’s been holding that net with a ribbon all day?” he asks and they all look out the door to Iwaizumi, already through and is waiting outside leaning on the railings and holding the said net in question.

Iwaizumi had admirably not forgotten about birthdays and had scowled terribly at Oikawa for forgetting his own nephew’s birthday.

Oikawa’s smile is fond.

“Yeah. Iwa-chan knows how to tickle Takeru’s fancy.”

“We don’t have anything to give Takeru-kun though,” Watari muses, thoughtful.

Oikawa rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

“That’s alright. It’s my fault I forgot to tell you anyway. I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you guys around.”

Hanamaki chuckles smugly as he walks pass them ahead.

“Of course he will, we are best of friends.”

Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him and the rest of them hide their amused laughter.

They’re on their way to the gates when Matsukawa loudly comments, “We’re missing someone.” he says, eyeing each of them and then realizing, “Ah, Kyoutani.” As though this is a usual thing…because normally it is.

“Oh! Um...” Yahaba pipes up from beside Kunimi and Kindaichi. “He’s er, probably waiting outside the gates.”

Kunimi coughs though it strangely comes out sounding along the lines of _goes home together_. And as if through some sort of predatory instinct, Matsukawa and Hanamaki turn their identical grins to Yahaba’s direction.

“Heey, don’t tease Yahaba-kun,” Oikawa coos, arm hooked around Iwaizumi’s own.

Iwaizumi smirks. “As if you wouldn’t do that,”

Oikawa looks down at him smiling beatifically.

“Oh. Only for you.”

Iwaizumi has to go focusing on the gray (yellow) tint of the moonlight for the rest of the walk to Oikawa’s house, his cheeks unnecessarily blazing.

 

Takeru opens the door when they arrive and the first thing Oikawa’s newly 8-year-old nephew does is to jump into Iwaizumi’s arms screaming, “HAJIME!!” delightedly, not even greeting his uncle before anything else.

Oikawa is pretty shocked. His own precious nephew…but then Iwaizumi is smiling so warmly it’s _really_ hard to complain at this point.

“Happy birthday, Takeru,” Iwaizumi says, handing him his gift which leads to another bout of excited yelling.

“Ah yes, family resemblance.” Hanamaki says.

Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him.

“This is better than what Tooru gave!” Takeru announces and wondering eyes and raised eyebrows of inquiry turns to Oikawa’s direction.

“What did Oikawa-san—” Kunimi starts to ask aloud.

Oikawa sweats and then he’s immediately ushering everyone inside the house.

“Now, now we’re blocking the doorway haha!” Oikawa pats Takeru’s head and Iwaizumi smirks at him. “Takeru, what do you say?”

Takeru grins and bows quickly.

“Thank you for coming! We have cake!” Takeru basks in the team’s charmed expressions before bouncing back on his heels. “Cake is this way,” he says finally before running off yelling, “MOM! UNCLE TOORU’S HOME!”

Oikawa sniffs. “If only he calls me that all the time.”

Hanamaki and Matsukawa moves to stand on either side of him, _tsk_ ing.

“What a cute boy, unlike a relative of his,” Hanamaki says.

“GEH—”

“Very mature for his age unlike some people,” Matsukawa adds.

“You’re both unnecessarily mean!”

Both of them snicker before moving away to the direction of where the cake is supposed to be, the team following before Oikawa can say anything.

Iwaizumi prods his side before he can start whining.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa whimpers. He’s either seven or seventeen there’s no in between.

“You’re not going to start whining are you?” Iwaizumi teases, looking up at him. “The other kids will swarm on you like ants if you do.” He motions to two kids Takeru’s age, his other guests, running around the living room and two helium balloons tied to a chair.

“Kids are evil, Iwa-chan.”

“They don’t like you either,” Iwaizumi tugs on Oikawa’s sleeve and starts dragging him. “Come on your sister’s probably looking for you. Also, I’m hungry.”

 

They help handing out plates to the little kids before eating. Satsuki, Oikawa’s sister, is all bright smiles and warm hellos, exactly like how Oikawa is except there’s no motive, as her husband continues tying multi-chromed balloons to chairs that only very few people will actually enjoy looking at. Oikawa’s parents are around somewhere, probably entertaining the parents of the small guests.

There are several conversations happening around him and Oikawa knows Iwaizumi is lingering beside him as they now sit beside each other in one of the small benches Oikawa’s mother had placed around their spacious living room. Party games are ongoing now and they’re both watching as Yahaba and Watari help Satsuki look over those. The others are participating, particularly Hanamaki and Matsukawa who appear to be enjoying teasing the small children just too much. The parents who’re watching don’t seem to have any problem about this; in fact they look rather amused.

Oikawa isn’t really focused though. Once in a while, he stares intently at this one balloon tied to one of the table legs, hoping at least to distinguish what it’s supposed to be and he’s still having qualms whether it’s red or dark blue.

And then he sulks because he can’t identify this one. It’s pretty overwhelming considering there are so many.

Iwaizumi grumbles suddenly and when Oikawa looks at him, Iwaizumi stands, taking off his jacket and handing it to Oikawa.

“Iwa-chan…?”

Iwaizumi smiles crookedly at him and then jerks a thumb towards the ongoing party game.

“Hanamaki’s being merciless with musical chairs I better go stop him before the kids cry,” he says, stomping off and hissing at Matsukawa to do something about that partner of his.

Oikawa chuckles as he watches the kids complain to Iwaizumi, some of them clinging to him.

He’s still chuckling when his mother walks to him, smiling.

“Oh? You’re not playing, Tooru?” she says.

Oikawa grins. “I’m all achy from practice, Mom,” he places the back of his hand against his forehead, all dramatic. “I think this is a sign of old age.”

His mother has a disapproving look about this dramatic tendency though.

“Tooru,” she scolds softly. “Did you forget your brace again?”

“Of course not Mom!” Oikawa replies indignantly. “Iwa-chan got mad!”

At the mention of Iwaizumi, her expression softens.

“I would too,” she chuckles and eyes the jacket Oikawa is holding. “That’s Hajime’s isn’t it?”

Oikawa blinks, hand unconsciously tightening around the fabric.

“Oh, yeah.”

They both glance at Iwaizumi who’s telling Kyoutani to stop pushing the chairs around.

“Hmm,” Oikawa’s mother hums. “I heard he’s had his contacts replaced recently.”

Oikawa eyes his mother curiously.

“Uh, yes. I went with him.”

“Are his Spectrum Tests okay?” she continues and Oikawa is almost gaping at her.

“I-I don’t really—”

Oikawa’s mother chuckles, patting Oikawa’s head.

“Well, well. Don’t forget your chocolate next week, Tooru. I’ll go now, Satsuki needs more plates.” And then she leaves without another word, humming cheerily and Oikawa looks after her, expression still confused.

When he faces back, Takeru’s staring at him and Oikawa jumps in a start.

“Takeru!” he exclaims.

“Aren’t you playing, Tooru?”

Oikawa smiles. “Ah, my knee is acting up from practice. Maybe some other time when I don’t feel old and achy.”

Takeru nods solemnly and he drinks from a juice pouch that Oikawa didn’t notice earlier quite seriously.

“I’m taking a break because Hanamaki-san is too good and I need to beat him,” he says.

Oikawa laughs.

“Yeah, you do that!”

Takeru looks at him strangely and then he runs to a chair to unravel a dark gray balloon tied there and goes back and hands it to Oikawa who takes it, confused.

Takeru scratches his cheek sheepishly.

“Because I was mean a while ago and that’s the nicest shade I know you should have it.”

This just might be a milestone in Oikawa’s life and he feels a burst of affection for the tiny person in front of him he’ll probably cry he’s probably crying right now and he doesn’t know it—

“Thank you,” Oikawa manages to choke out.

Takeru snickers in reply just as Hanamaki calls out in the background, “I’m not getting any younger winning here all the time,” followed by several complaints from the other children. Iwaizumi is looking at their direction interestedly.

Takeru scowls, looking determined. “Okay, I gotta go beat Hanamaki-san now.”

“Good luck,” Oikawa chuckles as he watches Takeru skip away.

Not soon after, his attention is turned to the balloon in his hands, dark gray in his perspective. There are other balloons the same shade in the room, or at least Oikawa thinks; he can’t really tell the difference if he were being honest to himself.

He spends minutes staring and turning over the balloon in his hand, mulling over the colors, the ones he knows, unaware of the game going on. Oikawa doesn’t realize the game ended too, not until Iwaizumi appears in his vision, squatting down in front of him, startling Oikawa.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa cries out. “Is the game over?”

Iwaizumi nods. “Hmm.”

“Oh, so who won?”

“Takeru. Makki pretended to lose at the very end.”

Oikawa chuckles softly. “Typical, Makki.”

Oikawa notices the others drifting back to the kitchen, nearly emptying the living room now. Iwaizumi hasn’t moved and he’s staring.

Oikawa smiles. “Iwa-chan…?”

“Did you know your eyes are brown?” Iwaizumi says suddenly, startling Oikawa again and he blinks, puzzled. Iwaizumi continues, clasping his hands together as Oikawa looks down on him, “You probably do. Mayari-san probably told you because you got her eyes,”

Iwaizumi grins. “Her hair too. And uh, that—” Iwaizumi points to a decorative tea kettle on one of the small desks in the living room and Oikawa turns his gaze towards it before looking back at Iwaizumi. “That’s brown too. It’s kind of a really dark gray, almost black but not… _that_ close.”

Oikawa’s breath hitches. “Iwa-cha—”

Iwaizumi squints and pats the balloon Oikawa is holding.

“This is blue,” Iwaizumi says, softly. “It’s a lighter tone of gray though not too light and a little on the darker side,” Iwaizumi turns his head and points to another balloon that’s much closer. “That one is yellow. It’s one of the lightest grays, closer to white than anything.”

Iwaizumi looks back at Oikawa again, raising his eyebrows.

“Should I go on?”

Oikawa bites his lip, a little embarrassed with himself.

“What are you doing? I thought you said—”

Iwaizumi sighs, sounding exasperated.

“You’re sulking. I don’t like to see you sulking.”

“I was doing okay, Iwa-chan I wasn’t—”

“Shut up, Oikawa.”

So he does, murmuring, “Okay,” before pursing his lips.

Iwaizumi stands and sits beside him and then suddenly, he wraps an arm around his neck roughly, pulling Oikawa close and ruffling his hair with his other fist.

“‘Okay’ you say you’re such an i-di-ot—”

Oikawa squeaks in dismay.

“Iwa-chan, not my hair! Nooo!”

“What’s that now? I didn’t hear you—”

“You meanie—!”

 

“Hanamaki-san!”

“Hanamaki-san, me first!”

“Makki-san—”

There are several tinny voices going out at once, Hanamaki is a little dazed.

“Children, children please, one at a time,” Hanamaki says.

Matsukawa hands a plateful of cake to one of them, grinning teasingly.

“They like you, Makki.” he says.

Hanamaki leans his hip on the table, winks.

“I, too, would love to have kids.”

Matsukawa’s comeback wink is even more obvious.

“Perhaps maybe…”

Kyoutani passes them, holding two plates of cake.

“Disgusting,” he deadpans before handing the other plate to Yahaba and moving away.

“PG-13, PG-13,” Kunimi says, tinkling two forks together. Watari and Kindaichi turn the kid’s attention away from Matsukawa and Hanamaki who’re both giggling, with cake. Watari is snickering, Kindaichi looking jumpy as usual.

Hanamaki abruptly stops chortling when he heads the sound of laughter. He turns his head and spies Iwaizumi snickering as he’s ruffling Oikawa’s hair vigorously. Oikawa sounds like a trapped mouse squealing.

Hanamaki grins, tugging at Matsukawa’s shirt to get him to look too and Matsukawa, who’s slicing the cake for Takeru’s friends again, looks at Hanamaki, eyebrows raised.

“What is it?”

“Look at those two idiots.”

Oikawa’s now free of Iwaizumi’s teasing and is now leaning against him morosely. Iwaizumi turns his head, still grinning, his black eye twinkling. Hanamaki scoffs. He doesn’t have to be the world’s most perceptive person to know this.

Matsukawa bites back a laugh, turning back to the cake.

“Flitting around each other.” he says as though it’s a normal occurrence. That maybe it’s okay to be with someone you don’t see Spectrum with. Matsukawa’s sure smile doesn’t take it back either.

 

Oikawa’s more confident when he goes back to the Makulay Facility, going there by himself to get his second dose. He supposes he should do this by himself now; Iwaizumi has other things to think about after all and it’s really his own decision to do this.

He gets there early and is greeted by the orange-haired shortie from that one time, name already dim in Oikawa’s memory but his nametag says _Hinata_.

Hinata bounces on his heels when he sees Oikawa. He’s already waving as Oikawa approaches.

“Grand King!” Hinata calls out, waving both his hands enthusiastically.

Oikawa makes a face, amused.

“Why do you call me that?”

Hinata beams. “You fought with Kageyama the first second you met, it’s a record!”

“Oh,” Oikawa grins mischievously. “Well he was very stubborn! I was only telling him.”

Hinata takes an appointment sheet from under the desk and scribbles a few words on it.

“He’s not here right now so you can say all that,” Hinata says.

Oikawa raises an eyebrow. “You won’t be offended or anything?”

“Pfftt, I say those things all the time!” Hinata snorts, very blasé. He hands the small sheet of paper to Oikawa. “There you go! Second dose right? Dr. Akiteru will see you now!”

 

There are a few people waiting in Akiteru’s clinic, faces Oikawa hasn’t seen before so he thankfully does not need to socialize. Also luckily, he arrives just in time his appointment is being called out.

Akiteru is ruffling through his medicine cabinet when Oikawa walks in his cubicle.

“Hello,” Oikawa mumbles, approaching.

“Ah, Oikawa Tooru! I remember. Second dose, right?” Akiteru removes a box and sets it on his desk as they both sit down.

“That’s right,” Oikawa replies, watching Akiteru going over Oikawa’s file, smiling simply.

“Well it’s good you came back on time,” Akiteru says. “How’s your first dose?”

Oikawa smiles, plasters it there as he thinks of an appropriate answer.

“It was—” _Iwaizumi’s eyes_. “—it was…um I meant, it went okay.” Oikawa clears his throat, hoping to get rid of the feeling of the unnecessary warmth of his cheeks.

Akiteru nods approvingly. “Did you experience some sort of high? It’s normal to feel those exaggerated sense of euphoria and warmth, just a heads up. It can be dangerous if it’s too much because you lose enough self-inhibition so you have to follow your doses okay?”

Oikawa nods okay.

“I don’t feel anything weird.”

“You can expect it in later doses then. When you come back for your next dose, I’m gonna have to make you evaluate your perception…”

Oikawa spaces out then, Akiteru’s words passing by him very quick, words probably very important though Oikawa didn’t really bother catching them.

“So, any questions?” Akiteru asks, finally.

“Um,” Oikawa pipes up and Akiteru tilts his head. “It’s probably just my weird receptiveness but…I’m, I’m not supposed to see colors right?”

Akiteru is graciously thoughtful about this.

“Well, most often, side effects occur visually. Paired people usually see blocks of color, unpaired, sometimes little to no colors at all. But side effects vary from one person to another so we can only tell after the next Spectrum test—”

Oikawa swallows. “Okay, so the thing is…” Oikawa wrings his fingers. “I mean, it was just a few seconds, less than a minute even b-but then—I remember, the walls, the floor, the color of our team shirt—” _Iwaizumi’s eyes_. And he’s starting to proceed to full on babbling had Akiteru not cut in.

Akiteru on the other hand, only has pure bewilderment in his eyes.

“Hold on, did you just say you saw Spectrum? Vivid colors? Can you make some out now? Should I—” he starts pulling something out of the box on his desk and Oikawa fears it’s some kind of color flash cards children usually use—

“Wait, wait no! I can’t, I…” Oikawa huffs. “I can’t see.” He feels oddly embarrassed.

Akiteru looks baffled. He’s looking at Oikawa like a puzzle piece, his light gray eyebrows crinkling slightly. Oikawa chews the inside of his cheek.

“I-I’m not paired, I would know.” Oikawa says even if Akiteru didn’t ask. But then again, his mother had always called him dense.

Akiteru relaxes and then he’s smiling again.

“Where’s your best friend?” he asks out of _nowhere_ Oikawa almost catches himself gaping openly.

“Iwa-chan? He’s not with me today,” Oikawa says tentatively.

Akiteru nods slowly. “Oh. Too bad, I wanted to ask him something…” he looks disappointed but recovers. “Anyway, there’s no need to fret. People have different side effects; some of them might not even be similar. Just as long as you’re taking the right doses then it’ll be okay,”

Akiteru slides a bar of foil-wrapped chocolate to Oikawa’s direction.

“We’ll find out soon, huh?”

 

Oikawa feels a little numb getting out of the clinic. Perhaps there really was something wrong with him that no one has ever seen before. Perhaps he’s just born weird. Maybe this is karma for teasing so many people in this lifetime.

He’s already thinking of the preposition of being kinder to Kyoutani and teasing Iwaizumi less when he walks up the counter.

Hinata is still alone there, Kageyama drifting off somewhere probably. However alone Hinata seems to be, he’s actually talking to a boy Oikawa didn’t see immediately. He’s definitely shorter than Oikawa and has a weird hair color—black at the roots and…light gray ends. The light gray is familiar, the same as Akiteru’s eyebrows and so many others and Oikawa is already staring when he realizes with glee that he’s seeing _yellow_.

Hinata chirps when he sees Oikawa.

“Ah, grand king! How’d it go?”

A self-assured smirk falls easily on Oikawa’s face.

“Always excellent, of course.”

Hinata completely ignores Oikawa’s smirk, excited because his friend is there. Hinata motions to him not in introduction.

“This is Kenma! Kenma, this is Oikawa-san he fought with Tobio that one time like I told you—” Hinata babbles.

Oikawa ignores the babbling completely, looking as Kenma stares up to him and nods in greeting. This is particularly normal, making friends but it’s Kenma’s gaze that Oikawa can’t really look away from.

He’s also odd-eyed. Left eye also black, the other the same pale gray as his hair.

“Ah!” Oikawa gasps, forgetting manners out of nowhere. “You—Your—you can’t…see very well?” It’s then he just realizes how _dumb_ that outburst is. _Some people are half-blind you idiot_ — He can almost hear Iwaizumi scolding him.

Kenma looks unsurprisingly confused about this and it takes him a few seconds to get what Oikawa is going on about and he seems to shrink a little.

“Er, no…that’s not really…” he mumbles.

“Kenma can see very well!” Hinata boasts loudly, very excited about the things he knows about his friend. “But his pair can’t so he—”

“Shouyou, calm down.”

“But Kuroo-san’s doing well with treatment so—”

Hinata rambles, oblivious with Kenma looking shyer by the minute and Oikawa’s gears are churning, listening to this.

“Huh,” he breathes.

Someone else saunters to the counter and Kenma straightens, visibly lighting up. Oikawa glances over and sees the black-haired mess he met a few weeks back.

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata squeaks.

“I’m done for today,” Kuroo says, a weird smile on his face though he seems friendly enough. He holds out a hand for Kenma who grabs it and hides behind him. Kuroo squints at Oikawa and his somehow cunning expression clears in recognition.

“Hey, heyy, weren’t you with that guy Iwaizumi?”

Oikawa smiles effortlessly.

“Uhuh.”

“Oh he’s not here today?” Kuroo even looks around.

“He’s not, no.”

“Hmm,” Kuroo grins. “Right then. Send him my regards. Hope he solves his problems soon—”

“Kuro,” Kenma whispers.

“Ah yes, sorry kitten. We should be leaving,” He salutes to Oikawa and Hinata. “Hinata, on my tab, okay?”

Hinata squawks a yes and Kuroo turns away.

“Wait!” Oikawa calls after, suddenly breathless. “What do you mean ‘problems’?”

Kuroo raises his eyebrows.

“Well, we all have problems don’t we?” he vaguely gestures to himself and goes.

 

Oikawa is pretty frustrated on the way home. He shouldn’t be over thinking this, this has nothing to do with Iwaizumi.

_Odd eyes. He’s had those since Oikawa could remember—_

He’s just stressing himself over things that has little to no chance of being right. It’s just ridiculous.

_Iwa-chan needs those to see. I don’t remember my childhood much but I’m sure—_

Oikawa stops walking, scowling at his own thoughts. This is stupid, Iwaizumi would tell him if he can see. Iwaizumi would tell him if he’s already paired to some stranger Oikawa doesn’t know yet. It makes Oikawa’s insides churn curiously, he should already know about this instead of being foolish. He knows that prospect will happen in the future. They can’t be together all the time—

And then Oikawa is running, holding the package Akiteru gave him earlier tight to his chest. He’s already close to home anyway but he’s gotta feel something other than this off-putting feeling of betrayal that’s just so out of place it’s really ludicrous.

He’s pretty occupied with his thoughts that he runs a little further from his house and ends up somewhere outside the Iwaizumi’s backyard. Oikawa stops, catching his breath. There’s a sound of water spraying from a hose in the backyard and Oikawa turns back to peek inside.

Iwaizumi is there, watering the sunflowers his mother had been growing for a while now. His sleeves are rolled up and Oikawa can’t really tell if it’s water on his arms or he’s just sweating and he forces his eyes away to the sunflowers he’s watering instead.

They’re a varied dark to light gray and Oikawa thinks, _orange_? No. _Yellow_. Definitely yellow too.

Oikawa smiles.

Iwaizumi probably realizes he’s being stared at because he glances around and doesn’t seem surprised at all to see Oikawa there.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says. “Come in.”

Oikawa grins teasingly, leaning against the short fence.

“Am I disturbing Iwa-chan?”

“Just come in before I spray you with water.”

“You’re no fun to tease,” Oikawa says, sadly and comes inside. He sits on one of the lawn benches, facing Iwaizumi who’s now moved to water his mother’s carnations.

“You went to Makulay today?” Iwaizumi asks.

“Yes I did!” Oikawa says, adopting a cheery tone.

Iwaizumi hums a reply. He’s frowning, just a bit and Oikawa knows him enough to know that frown means he’s thinking of something to say.

“What is it?” Oikawa asks.

Iwaizumi looks at him and rubs the back of his neck.

“How’s your second dose?”

Oikawa’s hands tighten around the package in his hands involuntarily. He’s still smiling.

“I haven’t taken it yet.”

Iwaizumi scoffs. “Oh. Then, whatever.”

Oikawa laughs. “Gee, you’re so uptight!”

“Tell me that again the next time I worry about you and you’re no longer going to receive my help—”

“Ehhhh—”

Iwaizumi continues grumbling silently and Oikawa’s eyes follow him as he finishes and turns the garden hose off.

“Why are you staring at me?” Iwaizumi asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously. The action makes Oikawa focus on his eyes then—black and dark gray— _green_.

Oikawa remembers Kenma back at the facility. Because his pair can’t see. That’s very generous, very selfless and it makes Oikawa _wonder_.

Iwaizumi walks to Oikawa, perplexed with his glazed-over expression.

“Oi,” he says.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mutters. “You…you’ll tell me right? If, if you meet them? Your…”

Oikawa looks to see if Iwaizumi’s expression falters, to give something away. Instead, his entire expression just softens and Oikawa’s chest feels all too tight and warm all of a sudden.

Iwaizumi flicks at Oikawa’s forehead all of a sudden that Oikawa jerks back with a cry. Iwaizumi seems to be amused by Oikawa’s question.

“Who do you think I am, Oikawa?” he says, shaking his head and smiling.

And then Oikawa’s seconds freeze just then.

The clouds above them are white. The sky the color of their track suit, the color Oikawa saw back then. Everything is too bright, yellow, orange, brown and Oikawa stares at Iwaizumi dumbly and it’s just black, and _green_ and Oikawa belatedly remembers in these few seconds as it lasts, _I haven’t taken my dose yet._

Oikawa blinks and it’s gone, it’s gone. Iwaizumi sticks his tongue out at him, teasing and he turns away, walks back to loop the hose together and Oikawa is alone with his thoughts again.

He doesn’t know what to do just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oikawa gave kneepads to takeru  
> ("Um, Tooru--"  
> "Safety, Takeru! Safety. Look at my right knee. And then look at yours. And then look at the knee pad."  
> "Thanks...")  
> #overprotectiveuncleoftheyear
> 
> also the appearance of pda police kunimi thanks to queen meme kira (simple-symphonia)
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	7. Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Eighteen._ Not really much he could do at eighteen. He could, for certain,  
>  get a job. Drive. Move away. Eventually go to college. But at eighteen, he also thinks, _eleven years now_ and he knows this time he’s kept it for too long. He doesn’t know if he can continue to keep this up after so many years, the invisible shell he’s been keeping his secret in has long started to break.  
>  At eighteen, he could, for one…tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Shiro** 白  
>  _White_

Iwaizumi has always been a wall of sturdiness by his side. He is a strong protection, always there in his triumphs and in every possible downfall, he’s always been there to catch him.

Ten inches, five inches. never turning away.

Ten centimeters, five centimeters, always this close but never closer.

Despite that, he’s never really turned away.

 

***

 

Oikawa doesn’t really have a lot of time figuring things out himself because then he’s preoccupied with the fact that Iwaizumi’s birthday is just around the corner and Iwaizumi had just been so uncaring about celebrating that it’s infuriating.

“Maybe,” Iwaizumi tells him in the start of a bribe. “If you take your dose now before you forget about it then I’ll think about celebrating.”

Oikawa doesn’t think he’s ever eaten chocolate that fast before that he didn’t even get to enjoy the taste. Nothing fairly interesting happened afterwards however much to Oikawa’s disappointment and he doesn’t see anything off no matter how hard he stares at Iwaizumi. He almost starts to believe he just imagined all he saw the other day.

But he bounces back, triumphantly mentioning the birthday celebrations to Iwaizumi the next day in school and is horrified when Iwaizumi blankly goes, “What do you mean I’ll celebrate?”

Oikawa shrinks to his side, wailing.

“Iwa-chan, you promised!”

Iwaizumi merely scoffs at him, looking back at his notes. Scoffed! He has no life really.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa sighs, laying on top of Iwaizumi’s desk to distract him from his notes. Iwaizumi doesn’t budge. “Give it a thought.”

“I don’t celebrate those kind of things I’ve stopped since we graduated junior high.”

“Do it for me! For me!”

“Who are you trying to celebrate for.”

“It’s your ‘getting older than you already are’ day—”

“Please leave.”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY IWAIZUMI!”

They both hear an off-key chorus and Iwaizumi buries his face into his notebook, not wanting to look at Matsukawa and Hanamaki’s grins as they approach. Oikawa laughs and Iwaizumi supposes he’s nodding along.

“It’s not my birthday yet.” Iwaizumi says, voice muffled.

“Happy birthday!” Hanamaki says anyway, ignoring him and then plucking off Iwaizumi’s notes out of his hands to uncover his face. Iwaizumi scowls.

Matsukawa grabs a chair for him and Hanamaki and Hanamaki immediately dives in.

“You know what I’m thinking?” Hanamaki continues, gesturing brightly with his hands. “Balloons. And flowers. Those majestic big ones and plates of cream puffs—”

“Hiro.” Matsukawa chides, not at all reprimanding.

Hanamaki shrugs, unabashed. “It’s a big scene, gotta think big. Eighteen is _the_ age, you know.”

Iwaizumi groans.

“I don’t really get it but get off my case please.”

“It only happens once! You gotta grab that chance if it only happens once.” Hanamaki grins.

Somehow, Iwaizumi thinks he’s already talking about something else.

“Get your own birthday.” Iwaizumi tells them.

“But mine is still a month away!” Oikawa pats Iwaizumi’s table, unhappy.

Iwaizumi exhales through his nose. The other three are still talking, an insistent buzz that Iwaizumi knows he will not be able to get rid of unless he does something.

So reluctantly, but without any sort of agreement whatsoever, he goes, “I don’t want anything fancy.”

Immediately, there’s a lapse of silence. And then Oikawa bursts out whooping while Hanamaki and Matsukawa nod along in satisfaction. Iwaizumi a hand over his face.

“You heard me.” he says.

“Hmm, I don’t know, Iwaizumi,” Hanamaki says, feigning a thoughtful expression. “All I heard was you wanted an air balloon with Oikawa’s face on it.”

Iwaizumi flips through his notes, undeterred.

“You have about five seconds to run before I decide if it’s worth it,” he threatens and Matsukawa and Hanamaki grin maliciously before making a run for it.

Oikawa leans on his desk again, smiling. Iwaizumi scowls at him and he laughs, raising his hands.

“I heard you, I heard you,” he says.

Iwaizumi stares at him for a moment. He really does look like he’s enjoying this, even humming to himself some ridiculous tune. In spite of everything else, Iwaizumi lets himself have a brief smile.

 

He should’ve known something would eventually go haywire.

During practice, Oikawa started up acting strange, probably starting to feel the side effects of the second dosage and combined with the thrill of running around in practice, became too jumpy and hyper, not letting go of Iwaizumi’s sleeve as he stares off into space.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki found it hilarious. Iwaizumi on the other hand, thought it was fine as long as Oikawa remains next to him, already thinking of going up to Mizoguchi and telling him they’re leaving early.

And he just about does that when he turns and finds that Oikawa has wandered to the other side of the court, obviously bothering Kyoutani as he giggles and pokes his cheek. Kyoutani looks serene for a few seconds and Iwaizumi watches as a frown starts to form on his face and decides it’s probably time to cut in.

“Oikawa, stop that.”  Iwaizumi hisses when he’s sprinted towards them, dragging Oikawa away from Kyoutani who looks as though he wants to throw a ball onto the captain’s face.

Yahaba and Watari vaguely look as though they want to see it happen.

Oikawa shrugs. “What? I was being nice,” he says.

Iwaizumi pulls him towards Matsukawa and Hanamaki who’re both sharing mischievous smiles.

“It’s like you’re poking a bear with a stick,” Hanamaki says.

“A very ill-tempered bear.” Matsukawa adds.

Oikawa doesn’t seem to find anything wrong with this, settling on resting his head on Iwaizumi’s shoulder heavily.

“But I _was_ being nice,” he insists in a whine and Iwaizumi pushes him onto one of the benches. Oikawa grins.

“Stop smiling you dumbass.” Iwaizumi tells him, flicking his forehead and for a short moment they hear Oikawa’s offended peals.

Oikawa tilts his head. “What’s that? My ears are buzzing I can’t hear you.” Then he giggles.

Fantastic.

“Oikawa! Iwaizumi! Matsukawa! Hanamaki!” Mizoguchi calls them loudly and Matsukawa and Hanamaki sprints into laps immediately as told. Iwaizumi stays where he is, Oikawa now holding on to him again and not letting go.

Mizoguchi walks up to them, frowning.

“What’s going on? Oikawa why is your forehead red?”

“Please, let him sit this one out.” Iwaizumi says.

“ _What!_ ” Oikawa reacts indignantly. “ _Why!_ ”

Iwaizumi ignores him, looking sternly at Mizoguchi.

“He has a medicine thing going on.”

Mizoguchi nods slowly, not exactly understanding.

“He’s just going to disrupt practice.” Iwaizumi prods on, pretending that Oikawa’s whining and repeated headbutting against his back is nonexistent.

“You know if you can’t practice you can just say,” Mizoguchi says tiredly, looking at Oikawa now. “Well then you sit this one out until you get whatever is going on with you out of your system.”

Needless to say, Iwaizumi spends the entirety of practice avoiding Oikawa’s grumpy gaze.

 

Oikawa’s cranky mood continues on until after practice and they’re trudging to the locker rooms.  At least by now, his energy levels has diminished though he still keeps on grumbling.

It takes Oikawa some time to change out of his clothes, obviously going on the slowest pace he can muster to annoy Iwaizumi further but Iwaizumi doesn’t say anything, knowing cranky Oikawa is his fault anyway. So he waits outside, patience wearing thinner by the second as he watches the first years and second years leave.

Matsukawa comes out not too long after, nodding when he sees Iwaizumi and leaning on the railings beside him.

“Hiro’s taking too long,” he says.

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “That makes two of them.”

Matsukawa snorts and is silent for a while, seemingly in thought. Suddenly he eyes Iwaizumi again, thinking.

“You know, I’m not as feisty as Hanamaki to blurt out normally embarrassing things so I’m just gonna say you’re almost eighteen so you gotta pull your shit together.”

Iwaizumi raises his eyebrows, surprised but somehow he feels he had it coming.

He smirks. “Look at you, just turned eighteen and being all mature now.”

Matsukawa grins. “Someone’s got to be eh? Watch it I’m the senpai here.”

“I’m trying my best, senpai.” Iwaizumi replies sarcastically.

Matsukawa raises an eyebrow. “Even for the other things?”

Iwaizumi feels his eyebrows pinch, confused.

Other…things?

Matsukawa stretches his arms out and relaxes, elbows resting on the railing.

“Things people usually hide when they are afraid,” he says quietly.

Iwaizumi is silent. And then—“I’m not—”

Matsukawa tilts his head. “Then you’re as dumb as Oikawa that’s for sure,” he says. “Hopefully not as oblivious either.”

Iwaizumi has a weird churning feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looks up at the dark sky up ahead.

 _Does Matsukawa know? Was it becoming steadily obvious? Is he going to tattle on Oikawa like some fourteen-year-old?_ But he eyes Matsukawa, the jerk, and he’s just smiling, all friendly and without some hidden intent.

Iwaizumi narrows his eyes, doubtful.

“You don’t know things,” he tries.

Matsukawa chortles, giving him a friendly shove.

“Of course I don’t know what’s going on with you though you aren’t the most secretive person I know I’m only saying.”

Iwaizumi makes a face just as the locker room door opens and Matsukawa grins innocently as Hanamaki comes out, closely followed by a still pouty Oikawa.

“Let’s go home.” Matsukawa says.

 

Iwaizumi spends the night staring at a calendar he’s tacked on a corkboard above his desk, his birth date encircled in a medium shade of gray (red) presumably by his mother. His eyes remain on the encircled number, unwavering.

He doesn’t know if he feels troubled. He has no reason to be troubled though deep in his thoughts there’s still something else.

 _Next week huh,_ Iwaizumi thinks.

 _Eighteen_. Not really much he could do at eighteen. He could, for certain, get a job. Drive. Move away. Eventually go to college.

But at eighteen, he also thinks, _eleven years now_ and he knows this time he’s kept it for too long. He doesn’t know if he can continue to keep this up after so many years, the invisible shell he’s been keeping his secret in has long started to break.

At eighteen, he could, for one…tell him.

He remembers the bright white flash, the flood of color and the pounding of his heart and he thinks once more _I could tell him_ and hypothetically he could without thinking and Iwaizumi slumps on his desk.

 _Love makes you reckless._ He ought to think it through.

 

For some reason, Makulay is the first place Iwaizumi thinks of as though it’s the root of all his deepest thoughts. He goes there anyway, even without an appointment to think before he ends up saying something he doesn’t intend to say when he faces Oikawa again.

Iwaizumi sees Tsukishima the first thing when he steps inside the building though at the front desk, he’s talking to someone all the while with a different expression on his face, somehow looking lighter and genuine, a big difference to his usual monotonous tone of voice.

Iwaizumi eyes the person he’s talking to—a boy somewhat shorter than Tsukishima, with brown hair and scattered freckles on his cheeks at least from what Iwaizumi could see anyway—and he smiles to himself, knowing some way.

He leaves them, shoving his hands in his pockets as he moves to the lounge, blinks at the multicolored hexagonal rubik’s cube there. There are children trying their best to turn the tiles and Iwaizumi smiles as he sits on a bench.

“Oh!”

Iwaizumi turns his head and feels pleasantly surprised when he sees Kuroo waving at him brightly, jogging to come up to him.

Iwaizumi waves back weakly. “Hey, Kuroo.”

“Hey!” Kuroo says when he approaches, taking a seat beside him. “Haven’t seen you in a while!”

Iwaizumi chuckles. “I guess so.”

Kuroo tilts his head. “Are you here for an appointment?”

“No,” Iwaizumi says. “Just to think I guess. What about you?”

Kuroo laughs. “Oh yes. I didn’t bring Kenma this time because he wanders off. Anyway, thinking huh? Something up?”

“Er…,” Iwaizumi rubs the back of his neck.

“Can I help?” Kuroo offers.

“I don’t really think you can help.”

“Are you being tsundere about this?”

“I’m…what?”

“That’s bad for your Phenylethylamine you know.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kuroo grins and Iwaizumi wonders if he’s caught Kuroo in a bad time but he stares at him and he’s just genuinely joking around.

“So what’s the deal really?” Kuroo asks, leaning back on his seat.

“It’s like a ten-year-old secret,” Iwaizumi says, feeling dumb.

“Oh boy,” Kuroo says. “That deep huh?”

“Kuroo,” Iwaizumi sighs. “How did Kenma tell you?”

Kuroo looks taken aback by the question though he doesn’t seem to be against it.

“Kenma…,” Kuroo starts, a smile on his face. “Kenma doesn’t really speak much you know unless he’s very comfortable but even then so it took some time for him to tell me. That is until he pulled me aside one day and told me. He knows I couldn’t see but oh boy I was ecstatic,” Kuroo laughs to himself. “It doesn’t matter if it took some time I’m still happy.”

Iwaizumi looks at the children playing around with the enormous rubik’s cube and wonders if they’re guests as well. He wonders how things would’ve changed if he already said it back then.

“Huh, I probably need that optimism,” he tells Kuroo who snorts.

“That you do, definitely. There’s no harm in trying.” Kuroo says and Iwaizumi smiles to himself.

Perhaps he should.

 

 **hnmk:** i’m thinking like a dozen croquembouche

 **mattsun:** makki

 **mattsun:** are you doing it for iwaizumi

 **mattsun** : or _yourself_

Oikawa snorts amusedly, eyeing the chat box Hanamaki had made for them three apparently for Iwaizumi’s surprise.

 

 **hnmk:** or we can just tie oikawa up with a bow and we’re set

 **mattsun:** lmao

 **hnmk:** lmao

 **t00ru:** i don’t want to die at such a young age

 

He can almost hear Matsukawa and Hanamaki’s snickers that he shakes his head and lets them have their way. They’re onto something else now; something about releasing a bunch of balloons to the sky in some ostentatious manner and Oikawa finally turns his phone off, letting him decide.

He doesn’t know what to get Iwaizumi if he’s going to be honest. Iwaizumi is simple, never asking for too much and never wants to inconvenience people.

Again, Oikawa feels that fond warmth, smiling when he gets up and retrieves his mother’s Book of Colors despite that it doesn’t look anything out of the ordinary.

The colors remain stark, monotone and dull and every time he opens the book only makes his worries spike that nothing is happening and the dosages are not working on him and someday Iwaizumi will have to move on along with the others and he’ll remain in a world that’s dim.

“I’ll do my best then.” Oikawa whispers to himself.

_For Iwa-chan, it’s easy._

 

Iwaizumi is going to tell him. In all honesty he has no inkling how on earth he’s going to do just that only he that he knows he’s going to and that’s all there is to it.

So when he steps into school by Monday, just four days away from being eighteen ( _eleven years_ ) he clenches his fists and moves.

Instantly he knows something is off when he sees Oikawa first thing in the morning when he’s late to class, having let Iwaizumi go on ahead this morning.

He looks disconsolate, completely the opposite of the high he was in last week and Iwaizumi wonders what’s wrong, wants to ask why there are bags under his eyes and suddenly his entire selfish itinerary for that day crumbles now with Oikawa in his mind.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Iwaizumi manages to ask him the moment they find themselves alone during the break wherein Iwaizumi had dragged Oikawa with him to the rooftop.

They’re seated side by side, Oikawa picking at his lunch meticulously with a sober expression. Now he turns his gaze to him, looking surprised.

“Eh?”

“If you’re going to play dumb with me, suck it up.”

Oikawa seems to get it eventually, eyebrows rising before he pouts.

“Nothing,” he says. “Just thinking. You know when you think too much and it becomes overwhelming—”

“Then why are you overdoing it? Is it so important to miss sleep on?” Iwaizumi frowns.

“I’m not sure,” Oikawa says flatly.

Iwaizumi starts to get frustrated.

“What are you thinking about?”

“You,” Oikawa replies instantly as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. He doesn’t look as if he intended to blurt it out however, stammering, “A-Ah, rather you’re a part of it.”

Iwaizumi glares at him.

“It’s not about my birthday is it? I told you I don’t want anything—”

Oikawa shakes his head fervently. “That’s not it, Iwa-chan!” _I want you to see I’m getting better_. He makes a face. “I’m fine.”

“Are you really?” Iwaizumi asks, disbelieving.

Oikawa looks at him for a moment before putting his lunch down and scooting closer to Iwaizumi, stretching out and proceeding to lie down on his lap.

“Yes I am.” Oikawa insists.

Iwaizumi scoffs, running his fingers into Oikawa’s hair affectionately either way.

“Seriously.” Iwaizumi breathes, exasperatedly. Oikawa makes an unintelligible noise and Iwaizumi drops it.

“I was going to tell you something,” Iwaizumi says softly, fingers going still but not leaving Oikawa’s soft curls.

Oikawa turns his head slightly, blinking up at Iwaizumi in puzzlement. Iwaizumi looks back at him, squinting at mismatched Oikawa from gray and white and black to brown and blue and gray.

He feels his smile soften. “Maybe later.”

Oikawa laughs softly, eyes not leaving his either.

“Okay.”

 

Somehow, Iwaizumi finds it didn’t get better.

They’ve just finished practice again, most of them already changing out of their sweaty jerseys. Iwaizumi thinks he’s the last person to step into the locker room when he immediately finds someone else missing when he gets to his locker.

Beside his, Oikawa’s locker remains untouched.

“Where’s Oikawa?” Iwaizumi turns to Hanamaki who’s taking his shirt off.

Hanamaki looks at him bewildered. “Eh?”

Watari looks up then. “Ah, I think I heard him say he was going to stay behind in the gym. Says he’ll clean up after.”

Iwaizumi grits his teeth, annoyed. Typical Oikawa.

He doesn’t bother changing.

“Thank you.” He tells Watari and then he’s slipping out of the room, the others looking on with this familiar scenario but with unease regardless.

“Leave them be,” Matsukawa tells the slowly quieting room. “They have their own way of dealing things.”

 

Iwaizumi doesn’t know what he expects to see as he’s stomping back to the gym. However, he knows for certain he’s going to see something he dislikes that he doesn’t have to see it coming.

True to his thoughts, he hears balls slamming on the floor even before he steps inside the gym. When he slams the door open, he sees Oikawa jumping for another serve, the ball clapping loudly as it makes contact with his palm and it flies off to the other side of the court with great distance.

Oikawa hears the door open and he immediately turns his head knowing he’s going to see an angry face.

“Iwa-chan—” he starts when his feet levels on the ground again. This time, he can already feel an ache despite that he’s wearing his knee brace.

Iwaizumi stills, his hands clenched into fists by his sides, frown already on his face as he watches Oikawa looking back at him frozen and waiting for the scolding.

Iwaizumi sighs vehemently and motions to the door.

“Let’s go.”

This time, Oikawa visibly relaxes, tossing back his hair.

“A few more minutes.”

“No, that’s enough. _Let’s go_.”

Iwaizumi watches as Oikawa ignores him and takes another ball. His hands are slightly trembling and this time, Iwaizumi’s sigh sounds aggravated as he treads heavily to Oikawa’s place behind the line and smacks the ball out of his hands before grabbing Oikawa’s shoulders.

“Stop it! That’s _enough_ ,” Iwaizumi hisses. “What are you doing again? Stop trying to overwork yourself!”

Oikawa’s eyes widen, startled and he exhales slowly.

“Sorry,” he says. “Please let me go.”

Iwaizumi lets him go at once and Oikawa doesn’t move. Iwaizumi peers up at him and sees that Oikawa looks sad.

“What’s wrong?” Iwaizumi asks gently. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Finally, he looks at him.

“I don’t think it’s working on me,” Oikawa says, voice barely a whisper. “The dosages.”

 _Now_ Iwaizumi is startled.

“Oikawa it’s only been twice.”

Oikawa steps back. “It doesn’t matter if it’s once or twice or several times! I know something has been going on with my head for a long time I just thought I could show you I’ve improved but apparently things don’t go so well—”

“Oikawa I’ve never asked anything from you by force and I’m certainly not asking you to do something you can’t do,” Iwaizumi says in frustration.

“You don’t understand, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa’s voice is slowly rising to a shout now. “I keep thinking I’m going to stay this way and I’ll be stuck here and someday you’re going to look and see and leave me and I,” Oikawa stops abruptly, breathing shaky and he glares at the floor.

Iwaizumi’s heart is pounding, possibly breaking at this point because _why this_. Of all the mistakes he’s done this has to come back and haunt him each time because he should’ve done something he should’ve said—

“Please,” Iwaizumi says softly because there’s nothing he can do to ease it. “Stop hurting yourself.”

“You don’t understand,” Oikawa continues anyway. “Because you can’t see now but someday—”

“I can.” Iwaizumi murmurs almost helplessly and Oikawa’s not sure he heard it right until he looks at Iwaizumi with astonishment on his face, a thousand lashes to the chest just from two words.

 _Hajime?_ He never gets to say it.

“You…,” Oikawa chokes.

Iwaizumi can’t feel his hands. “That’s what I was going to tell you.” _Not this way, not this way, not this way._

“Iwa-chan—” Oikawa’s voice breaks but he can’t will himself to move. Iwaizumi looks pained like he’s trying not to speak but there are several things Oikawa wants to know.

_When? How?_

And then with a bitter aftertaste— _Who?_

“I—Sorry.” Oikawa hears Iwaizumi say sounding confused and conflicted.

And then he turns away, hands running down his face as he steps back hurriedly, walking back out from where he came from and Oikawa remains standing there, knee aching and now with a hand clutched to his chest as he tries even out his breathing.

 

***

 

Iwaizumi had always been a sturdy wall by his side, never leaving. But this time, five meters, ten meters away.

It may be the first time he’s turned away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can hear you guys going "YOU TOOK SO LONG AND YOU COME BACK WITH ANGST?!" muehehe it gets betTER
> 
> ahhhhhhhh it's been 85 years (well actually just 7 months so it's not so depressing) and ppl are still reading this! you're all so awesome for staying honestly! (i went through a lot--stat midterms, a lot of exams, finals so i didnt have much time to focus on my fics save for one shot ones hehe)
> 
> thank you very much for reading! i never did give up on this story it was always in my head 24/7 LMAO thanks to @asterbells and @simple-symphonia for the CONSTANT REMINDERS
> 
> PS. yes i am writing Chapter 8 don't worry! however i do not have wifi still so...woops
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	8. Daidaiiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I know where Iwaizumi-kun is at if you want to go see him,” she says and Oikawa feels all the muscles in his body lock in on itself.  
> “I-Is that so?” he manages.  
> “Yeah! He’s was in the Chrome class earlier so I suppose he already _saw_ that’s so cool! But I bet you know already so I’m just saying.” Akane laughs.  
>  “He’s here?” is all Oikawa thinks of so it’s the first thing he says.  
> Nothing else is important. He could have anyone else, be paired to someone else, anyone he wants to but Oikawa would die if he’ll never talk to him again.   
> _Nothing else is important._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Daidaiiro** 橙色  
>  _Orange_

Iwaizumi thinks he might have been raccoon in his past life—always out in the road possibly just waiting to be run over. In fact, he’d _love_ to be run over at the moment. Possibly with a truck going fifty miles per hour.

He’s just piling on his mistakes one at a time, each one getting worse than the other and if his damned mouth had just controlled itself then another mistake wouldn’t have added on to the already long list.

He didn’t mean to say it. Especially not that way. He wants to get the hell out of his house and run over to Oikawa’s, just close by and knock into his system in some way to tell him that Iwaizumi’s been a dumbass this entire time.

Instead, he’s stuck here at the moment, at the dinner table with his parents whom he had interrupted mid-dinner preparations and made them sit down with him so they can talk.

Since he couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut just barely two hours ago.

Iwaizumi’s parents are smiling at him expectantly as they both sit down, looking at their only son with the permanent affection most parents have. They don’t really have an idea how bad it is. Iwaizumi could’ve just tattooed _MISTAKE_ across his forehead.

“What’s going on sweetheart?” Aiko, Iwaizumi’s mother wants to know, clasping her hands together.

“I…have something to say,” Iwaizumi says as though he’s trying to be cryptic but really he’s trying to save what he has left which isn’t much. It’s like tying a sack of rice together with spider silk.

“What is it?” His father, Jirou, asks this time. He has an apron on with twined cherries printed all over it. It’s not even Friday but he felt like making dinner this time.

Now that he’s being asked what the problem is, now he can’t even say it. What _is_ his problem?

_It all started when I ruined my life at seven years old—_

“I, uh,” Iwaizumi starts. Cryptic is the key. He rubs the back of his neck trying to find the right words to go along with it.

“It’s nothing illegal, is it?” His mother asks, eyes going wide and his father hums.

Iwaizumi jumps in his seat.

“No!”

“Oh, it’s fine then,” Jirou says.

Iwaizumi exhales, trying one more time.

“I’m—”

“Are you gay?” His father interrupts, leaning close and his mother visibly sighs in relief.

“I thought it was something life threatening,” Aiko says, shaking her head. “But then it just that simple, Hajime you know we’re fine with your preferences as long as you’re happy.”

“It’s not like it changes anything,” Jirou adds, nodding earnestly.

“Now I should get back to preparing dinner—”

Several things are unfolding very fast that Iwaizumi can’t really keep up with his parents’ words, both of them speaking at once and he’s very startled by how things are turning.

“Hey—hold on a second!” he says, holding out a hand just as his mother starts standing. That has her pausing and looking back at him, baffled. “I mean, _you’re not wrong_ but that’s not exactly what I was going to s—”

Aiko sits back down, blinking.

“Then what were you going to say?” Jirou asks, scratching his chin in thought.

“The thing is I…I can…see.” _Colors._

The reactions come after a few seconds of staring and blinking and then two synchronized sharp inhales. Now his _father_ stands up in excitement that his chair topples over.

“You what!!” Jirou exclaims in delight as his wife beams ecstatically.

Iwaizumi watches them both with a nervous smile on his face. At least he’s made some people happy.

“Ah! Let me just get my book, I’ll give it to you, Hajime.” Aiko says, standing up and then zooming out, running upstairs to get her Book of Colors and Iwaizumi remains seated there like a ball of anxiety in the shape of a human.

“When did this happen?” Jirou asks his son, raising his eyebrows in question. It’s not spoken but Iwaizumi knows he’s also asking who it is subliminally.

He can’t even answer _when_. There’s no “when” for this that’s even remotely acceptable. _Ten years ago? Eleven years ago? What have you been doing, Hajime?_

So he just stares at his father trying not to look so distressed.

Surprisingly, Jirou somehow goes along with it without saying anything. He smiles gently, sympathetic and nods just as Aiko comes back down holding the book Iwaizumi had long uncovered way, way back.

“There you are, my Book of Colors,” Aiko tells him, smiling as well. “Ah! Very appropriate too, it’s almost your birthday.”

Iwaizumi takes the book and clutches it tight in his hand.

“Yeah.”

Aiko looks at him for a moment, thoughtful and shares a glance with her husband who raises his eyebrows.

“Hajime,” Aiko starts when she looks back at him again. “This can be discussed only when you feel like it so you won’t feel pressured. However, now that you can see we’re going to have to move you to the Chrome-sighted classes in school, that’s right? We’re going to have that arranged.”

Iwaizumi pauses. _Oh, that’s right._ Chrome-sighted and Colorblind people have separate classrooms.

_Oikawa—_

“Ah,” Iwaizumi breathes, looks at his parents and thinking back to the love he’s bound forever. “I’m going to have to manage.”

 

“Iwaizumi-san won’t come to class today?”

Oikawa looks up, startled and sees the face of a classmate, a girl with dark gray (brown? Oikawa’s unsure) pigtails. Having just arrived to class, Oikawa’s a bit disoriented by the sudden question most especially having only had solid three hours of sleep last night.

More so, he knows _nothing_ about the information asked. He didn’t bother visiting Iwaizumi’s house today, scared he’s still mad though he wants to ask him things so badly that his hands shake when he thinks about it. Oikawa didn’t check their usual meeting place either.

“I…,” he mumbles, trying to sound lively for the lovely girl. “I’m not sure. Iwa-chan doesn’t tell me some things.” _Like—_

Stop. Oikawa inhales testily.

“Oh,” she has the nerve to sound disappointed. Oikawa can’t blame her much.

“Yeah.”

“Just asking because you always seem to be together so I thought you’d know. Later!” The girl smiles, waving before finally running off to join her friends and Oikawa stops what he’s doing altogether.

Of course. _We are never not together._

Oikawa looks out the window, the sun is high now, lighting the room with white and muted gray. Always together, he thinks. It’s the natural balance of things. He doesn’t know how he’s going to deal now he knows there’s been a great shift in the balance he so treasures.

 

Iwaizumi doesn’t come to class the entire day and it sets Oikawa on edge especially when he finds out he’s not in practice either. He wants to apologize, to talk, to _say something._ He doesn’t even care what it is. He dislikes going for long periods knowing there’s a misunderstanding between them.

_I can accept it, I can accept you’re paired just talk to me, please don’t hate me. I can accept you’re paired even if it’s not with m—_

Oikawa almost slams the locker room door open, done unconsciously to tear him away from his thoughts that he’s pulled out of his head out of nowhere.

_What was that?_ he thinks, heart pounding.

Unconscious thoughts are lethal. It can get you off guard so randomly but Oikawa’s sure it probably…means nothing.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki are in the locker room when he enters, eyeing Oikawa as he trudges slowly to his locker, playing with his fingers.

“The others have gone on ahead to the gym,” Hanamaki says. “Though Yahaba and Kyoutani aren’t here yet.”

“Where’s Iwaizumi?” Matsukawa asks bluntly, taking his water bottle out of his bag.

Oikawa almost flinches. He pouts instead, looking at Matsukawa.

“Well,”

“He didn’t come to class?” Matsukawa wants to know.

“No.”

“That’s odd of him. Did you ask why?”

Oikawa scowls to himself. This was not his story to tell so he doesn’t answer at first.

“You should ask him yourself,” he says.

“Ah, a quarrel.” Hanamaki says, smiling deviously.

He’s technically not wrong so Oikawa pouts again. Matsukawa chortles and strides to Oikawa to pat him on the shoulder in consolation.

“Well, it’ll pass. You know how he is,” Matsukawa grins.

“Can’t resist you,” Hanamaki flutters his eyelashes, chuckling.

Oikawa doesn’t answer once more, cheeks feeling hotter than usual.

“You’ll get through it eventually, Captain,” Matsukawa tells him, waving as he makes his way to the door.

“Right, right. Hurry up there!” Hanamaki says, following him.

Hopefully, Oikawa will.

 

It’s an odd feeling, Iwaizumi ponders on, coming to back to school this time heading to a different direction and without his contacts for the first time in ten years. It feels like walking into your first classroom in kindergarten and having to introduce yourself but this time you know who you’re trying to introduce yourself to and you still have no idea how to explain your rather complicated situation.

To make matters worse, he’s trying to avoid the Colorblind classrooms and it’s making it hard for him to do so knowing Oikawa is somewhere there. There’s nothing he can do about it yet anyway so he moves.

The first face Iwaizumi sees in the classroom as the teacher is announcing he’ll be joining them for the rest of the year, is amusingly, Hanamaki who looks so flabbergasted he’s got his mouth open. Matsukawa, meanwhile, somehow looks bowled over and betrayed at the same time like he was not expecting this is how it would go.

 The others are merely morbidly curious and they are _ooh_ ing excitedly. Iwaizumi can almost hear the “ _paired to whom?_ ” in their heads and he swears he’ll try to keep his mouth shut the entire day just in case.

Coincidentally, he ends up sitting beside Hanamaki who’s now looking at him with an easy eye.

“You’re not wearing your contacts,” he says conversationally without any intent.

Iwaizumi sighs. “No.”

Hanamaki grins. “You’re better without them.”

He dislikes it. He doesn’t have to squint. This is not what Oikawa sees.

“Well,” Iwaizumi says.

“Yo, Iwaizumi!” to Iwaizumi’s left is a boy he remembers whom have transferred to the Chrome-sighted rooms way back in first year. _Name…? Oh, Ryohei._

Iwaizumi tries laughing. “Hey.”

“When did you find out?” Ryohei wants to know, kindly avoiding the topic Iwaizumi has not made a lie for.

“When I came to my senses I guess.” Iwaizumi flatly and he hears Hanamaki cackling.

Ryohei seems to agree.

“So, did you know when you weren’t around yesterday Mizoguchi was only like, ‘Ah, well Iwaizumi must be sick’ like how fair is that he’d grill us to pieces if _we_ were absent.” Hanamaki tells Iwaizumi when Ryohei’s attention has drifted away.

“When you’re a model student then—”

“It’s witchcraft, Hajime-kun.”

Iwaizumi snorts. Hanamaki leans close to his chair.

“When are you going to talk to him?” he asks and Iwaizumi doesn’t need to ask to know who he’s talking about.

“I’ll get to it.” Iwaizumi says.

Hanamaki raises his eyebrows. “He knows huh?”

Iwaizumi rests his chin on his palm, looking at nowhere in particular.

“I’m assuming.”

 

Oikawa hears of it when their first break comes.

“Ah, Oikawa-kun!”

When Oikawa looks up, he sees the girl from the other day. He remembers her name now somehow, Akane or something like that.

Akane is smiling, happy.

“I know where Iwaizumi-kun is at if you want to go see him,” she says and Oikawa feels all the muscles in his body lock in on itself.

“I-Is that so?” he manages.

“Yeah! He’s was in the Chrome class earlier so I suppose he already _saw_ that’s so cool! But I bet you know already so I’m just saying.” Akane laughs.

“He’s here?” is all Oikawa thinks of so it’s the first thing he says.

Nothing else is important. He could have anyone else, be paired to someone else, anyone he wants to but Oikawa would die if he’ll never talk to him again.

_Nothing else is important._

Oikawa starts to stand. “Is he—”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s around right now. Perhaps lunch time? Besides it’s almost time for the next class—Oikawa-kun?” Akane peers at him quizzically. Oikawa is starting to like her a lot.

He sits back down almost robotically, mind still running around.

“Okay. Later then.” Oikawa says quietly.

Akane smiles wide, nodding. “Go for it.”

 

When lunch break comes, Oikawa makes a run for it, milk bread in hand and he proceeds to the hallway of the Chrome-sighted rooms. It’s strange—it’s familiar to him and it’s not at the same time. Matsukawa and Hanamaki are here. Some of his friends are here.

Now Iwaizumi is here.

_It doesn’t matter_ , Oikawa thinks through gritted teeth as he walks. He sees someone he knows and he nods at them.

“Oikawa, hey!” this friend says, grinning at him. “Ah! You’re here to visit Iwaizumi are you? You’re gonna tease him I bet.”

“Um, can you tell me where—” Oikawa feels a little lost.

“He’s in the same class as Matsukawa and Hanamaki.”

“Oh,” Good. He knows where it is. “Thanks!”

“No problem!”

Oikawa walks briskly, eyes looking nowhere else but forward until he catches sight of the familiar doors he and Iwaizumi used to pass by every morning.

Now it’s his classroom.

Interestingly, Matsukawa and Hanamaki are standing by the doors, seemingly discussing something and they only see Oikawa when he comes to a stop in front of them. When they see him, they gasp comically in unison.

“OIKAWA!” they yell, running forward and gripping Oikawa by the shoulders. Oikawa looks fairly stunned staring at their very serious expressions that it almost looks funny.

“Um, hi guys what—”

Matsukawa shakes him once.

“What are you doing here?” he wants to know.

Oikawa blinks. “I-I wanted to see Iw—”

Hanamaki jostles him next.

“ _Perfect_.”

Suddenly, they’re pushing him inside mumbling rushed words that Oikawa could only catch a few lines of and it’s only making him more confused.

“Go, go, ram some sense into him!” Matsukawa is saying as Hanamaki coos, “Iwaizumi~! Someone’s looking for you!” into the room and Oikawa’s heart shoots out of his chest when he spots Iwaizumi in the far left seat, starting to look up.

Oikawa stills once more.

“I-I-wa—” he stammers. _His eyes are—he’s not wearing his contacts._

Matsukawa and Hanamaki give him one last push and a quick hiss of, “Talk to him you fucking nerd—” before fleeing.

For some reason, Oikawa is nervous. Iwaizumi looks surprised to see him but thankfully he doesn’t look like he’s grumpy. If anything, it only makes his hands clammier as he slowly ambles towards him.

_I shouldn’t be here._ Oikawa thinks as he stands in front of Iwaizumi, his lungs not giving him enough air somehow.

“Oikawa?” Iwaizumi inclines his head in wonder and Oikawa’s heart lurches.

_His eyes—he’s really beautiful._

Oikawa opens his mouth and then shuts it again. Iwaizumi puts the book he’s holding down and looks at him. He looks a bit breathless and obviously thinking hard that Iwaizumi can almost hear the gears turning in his head.

“What’s wrong—” Iwaizumi starts to ask when Oikawa fidgets and places his prized milk bread on Iwaizumi’s table. Iwaizumi holds his breath for a second before he exhales slowly, still baffled. “What’s this for?”

“It’s for you,” Oikawa mumbles, cheeks flushed.

Iwaizumi quirks a smile. “Oikawa, it’s yours.”

“ _No_ , it’s for you.”

Iwaizumi’s eyebrows pinch. “But why…?”

And then a mumble—“I’m sorry,”

Iwaizumi starts and he begins to stand going, “Why are you—” when, to his horror, Oikawa starts tearing up and he can hear warning bells ringing in his head.

“Oikawa, what’s going on? Don’t cry—” Iwaizumi can see Matsukawa and Hanamaki hiding behind the door, looking at them in disbelief.

Naturally, Oikawa cannot stop his tear ducts when crying is brought up.

“You got mad at me!” he cries, burying his face in his hands and Iwaizumi, now standing, doesn’t know where to put his hands to give him comfort. “Please don’t hate me, Iwa-chan…”

“I’m not mad at you!” Iwaizumi says, distressed.

“You were though!” Oikawa insists stubbornly. They’re getting a few looks from the other people in the room and Iwaizumi feels like burying his face in his hands too.

“I’m not— _agh_ , jesus,” he grabs Oikawa by the arm and starts dragging him out of the room with him, taking a second to send a glare towards Matsukawa and Hanamaki’s direction before moving away.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, voice cracking as he rubs at his eyes, obediently following Iwaizumi though he doesn’t see where he’s going.

“Why do you think I’m mad at you?” Iwaizumi sighs as they walk up another flight of stairs.

“Because the other day—” Oikawa looks up just as Iwaizumi is opening the door to the rooftop, the sudden sunlight making him squint and stop midsentence.

Iwaizumi lets go of him when they get under the shade and he stares up at Oikawa’s already red-rimmed eyes, eyes going soft at the sight of him.

“Why are you apologizing?” Iwaizumi asks gently and Oikawa doesn’t hide his displeasure, pouting.

“You were mad the other day,” Oikawa says, sniffing. “Please don’t hate me.”

Iwaizumi laughs quietly. “You’re acting like you don’t know me. I’m not going to hate you for something like that.” _I’m the one in the wrong here and I—_

 Oikawa stares at him, tension slowly fading from his shoulders. It’s easy to look at Iwaizumi like this, with what short distance in between them. His eyes move easily from the scar on his forehead, the shape of his eyebrows, his eyelashes, the gray of his eyes, his cheekbones, his lips. Oikawa doesn’t have to touch him to know what it would feel like.

“Oikawa?” Iwaizumi says when Oikawa’s thoughts start to wander.

“Hmm?” Oikawa replies automatically.

“Are you better now?”

Oikawa thinks about it. It’s not as though he _isn’t_ okay. But—

_Please don’t leave me._

Unconscious thoughts are vile, vicious and Oikawa can’t stop them the moment the first thought comes rushing out of his mind.

_I’m okay, I’m fine_

_Who was lucky enough to be your—_

_Why couldn’t it be m—_

Oikawa jolts at the final thought, eyes being fixed to Iwaizumi’s and for some reason, for one odd moment if he looks hard enough he thinks he could—

He must have started frowning because Iwaizumi holds out his arms for him, looking unimpressed.

“Come on,” Iwaizumi says, inviting and Oikawa’s breath catches feeling teary once more as he steps forward and lets himself fall into Iwaizumi’s arms, hiccupping.

Iwaizumi feels Oikawa’s arms snake around him tight, his face burying into his neck petulantly and Iwaizumi laughs to himself.

“For someone people are so afraid of you sure cry easy,” he snorts.

Oikawa actually stomps his foot.

“ _Iwa-chan_ ,”

Iwaizumi smiles, heart settling into a steadier, stronger beating. He cards a hand into the back of Oikawa’s hair, the brown tips turning a faint orange in the sunlight.

_Beautiful._

“I know.” Iwaizumi murmurs, exhaling. _I can stay here for a while._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feelin dat feel
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	9. Momoiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’ll actually do it?” he sounds genuinely baffled.  
> “Sometimes you really confuse me—”  
> “You were very hesitant about it!”  
> Iwaizumi _tsk_ s. “Well I’m going to do it now come on,” he motions to the floor. “Sit on the floor you’re too tall for this.”  
> Oikawa is suddenly grinning, bright, lively and suddenly excited as he scrambles to sit by Iwaizumi’s feet, facing him expectantly.  
> And then Iwaizumi cups his face with warm hands and warm eyes, smiling softly and Oikawa feels his heart doing funny little things he doesn’t understand yet.  
> “Okay,” Iwaizumi says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Momoiro** 桃色  
>  _Pink_

Iwaizumi hears birds chirping when he opens his eyes, just ten minutes before his alarm rings for the day and he loses the will to go back to sleep when he sees sunlight pouring in from his window.

His morning is yellow, orange, and a rainbow once the light hits the mirror.

 _Oh,_ he thinks. _My birthday._

That thought finally makes him sit up, hand running through his messy hair as he blinks  blearily into his room and his alarm finally rings, just in time.

Eleven years today, Iwaizumi knows this as he turns off his alarm.

This age he’ll get it right.

 

“Happy birthday, Hajime!”

His parents are, unsurprisingly, waiting for him at the foot of the stairs, both with aprons over their work clothes and they’re waving at him to come down, beaming brightly. They’ve been doing this for the past eighteen years and god knows how long they’ve been waiting for Iwaizumi to wake up today.

Iwaizumi is showered with kisses once he meets them and he only hopes his mother’s lipstick isn’t stamped on his face. He smiles nevertheless, happy and he laughs when his father tries mussing his newly washed hair.

“I remember when you were just a teeny baby,” his mother starts, putting a hand to her chest emotionally and Iwaizumi feels a great _oh no_ about to come.

“You cried every time any other child came near,” his father wipes a fake tear. “It was comical.”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “Okay, that’s enough.”

“But really, I have pictures!”

“I’ve seen them, Dad.”

“There was even one with you and Tooru in the bathtub—”

“Mom, _no_ ,” Iwaizumi speeds to the kitchen, aghast and he hears his mother giggle.

He hears them talking some more as they step into the kitchen, reminiscing about embarrassing moments in Iwaizumi’s life as they do every single birthday and Iwaizumi tunes them out, distracted when he feels his phone vibrate.

 

**Received [6:59 am]**

_Asskawa_

iwa-chan, happy birthday!!!! i’m outside waiting for you ;-)

 

Iwaizumi breaks into an unconscious smile, not helping it.

 

**Sent [7:00 am]**

_Asskawa_

Why didn’t you come in?

 

**Received [7:00 am]**

_Asskawa_

>  family first iwa-chan wtf…

>  come quick i have a present!!! 8D

 

**Sent [7:03 am]**

_Asskawa_

Gross.

 

**Received [7:03 am]**

_Asskawa_

D:

 

**Sent [7:04 am]**

_Asskawa_

Be there in 5.

 

**Received [7:05 am]**

_Asskawa_

:D

 

Iwaizumi snorts.

“Oh by the way, Hajime,” his mother says, pointing to the door. “Tooru’s been at the gate for thirty minutes now. I told him to come in but he says he’s waiting for you.”

Iwaizumi quirks a smile as he stands.

“Yeah, I know. I should get going.”

 

True enough, Oikawa waves brightly at him the moment he steps out of the front door and he casually waves back at him.

“Ah, before I forget,” Iwaizumi’s father calls out to him before he moves to the gate. “Hajime, invite the team over for dinner later.”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow.

“What are you planning?”

Jirou grins. “It’s nothing fancy, just a little get together. Besides it’s your _birthday_ like that’s no big deal.”

“The new ones haven’t tried your father’s cooking,” his mother boasts and there’s a cacophony of giggles from both of them again.

Iwaizumi sighs, defeated though not at all upset by it. He smiles and assures them, “Okay, I’ll tell them.”

Naturally it got Oikawa all excited.

“Oh Iwa-chan that’s great!” he exclaims, all gestures and broad smiles, brown eyes bright even if it’s still so early in the morning to be excited. “I wonder if Nee-chan will bake a cake.”

“You know, you all spoil me too much.”

“Birthdays are _once a year,_ Iwa-chan!” Oikawa says indignantly. “Besides, you’re now _eighteen_ , you know.”

“Heh, where’s my present then?”

Oikawa turns smug. “It’s a secret.”

Iwaizumi makes a face at him playfully.

“You went all the trouble of telling me and then it’s a secret? I’m disappointed.”

“Wait, Iwa-chan—”

“ _Very_ disappointed.”

“ _Iwa-chan,_ ”

“What.”

“There has to be suspense first!”

Iwaizumi looks at him blankly. “Suspense,” he repeats in a deadpan.

Oikawa grins, nodding, digging through his bag now.

“Uhuh. Close your eyes first.”

“Bye, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi starts walking off until Oikawa grabs his arm, pealing.

“No, no! Close your eyes first!” Oikawa insists, rushing to stand in front of him.

Iwaizumi looks at him for a moment before sighing.

“Alright, okay.” So he closes his eyes and he feels Oikawa’s cold hand cover them for good measure. Instinctively, Iwaizumi reaches out his hand to touch it and Oikawa _tsk_ s.

“No peeking, Iwa-chan!” he says.

“Your hand is cold.”

Oikawa laughs softly.

“Sorry,” and then his hand is gone, leaving Iwaizumi blinking back confusedly but when his vision clears, he sees a different thing altogether.

His vision is swimming in colors as he looks at the intricately shaped pinwheel spinning in front of him, its colors on each shade of the Spectrum.

Oikawa smiles and Iwaizumi’s attention shifts to that instantly.

“Pretty isn’t it?” Oikawa says, stopping the wheel and pointing the colors out. “It even has tiny labels see? I saw it when I went out with Takeru yesterday and well, I thought of you and you’d probably like—”

“I love it,” Iwaizumi says without hesitation as he takes the pinwheel and gives it another spin.

“Eh?”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes at Oikawa, smiling.

“I said I love it. Thank you.”

Oikawa beams and it’s possibly the only birthday gift Iwaizumi didn’t ask for.

That is until Oikawa goes, “Ah, well naturally Oikawa-san is the best~” and Iwaizumi smacks him.

 

“Why are you following me?” Iwaizumi grumbles as he makes his way to the Chrome classrooms, Oikawa trotting by his side, still smiling.

“I am walking you to class,” Oikawa says sweetly, waving at two girls as they’re walking by.

Iwaizumi raises his eyebrow.

“And why is that?”

“Because it’s your birthday,” Oikawa gives him a thumbs up and they stop at the door of Iwaizumi’s class. He looks up at Oikawa’s smile incredulously.

“Are you going to use that excuse the entire day?”

“By all means,” Oikawa’s grin is just downright teasing this time that Iwaizumi scoffs.

“Whatever. Go to class.”

“Okay, happy birthday Iwa-chan!” Oikawa pats him on the head much to Iwaizumi’s mortification and he swipes at Oikawa angrily but he skips away before he can catch him, giggling infuriatingly.

Iwaizumi shakes his head in disbelief and walks over to his seat and finds, somehow expecting it, Matsukawa and Hanamaki standing there with twin devious grins, triangular party poppers in hand.

Iwaizumi gives them an evil eye.

“You wouldn’t.”

Hanamaki shakes the one he’s holding in his hand but doesn’t pull the string.

“Happy birthday,” he and Matsukawa say in unison.

 Iwaizumi waves his hand in acknowledgement.

“Yeah, thank you. Please don’t pop those it’s too early in the morning.”

Matsukawa grins. “Maybe later.”

Hanamaki nods and Iwaizumi pretends he didn’t hear it.

“My dad wants the team over later by the way,” he says instead.

Hanamaki raises his hand up to Matsukawa for a high five.

“Ah hell yeah, Mattsun free food!”

Matsukawa grins, nodding earnestly and returning the high five before pinning his gaze towards Iwaizumi again. He eyes the pinwheel Oikawa gave out from where it’s sticking out of Iwaizumi’s bag.

“Ohh, what’s this?”

Iwaizumi sits down and watches as Matsukawa gives it a spin.

“It’s pretty,” Hanamaki comments.

“Oikawa gave it to me,” Iwaizumi tells them. They both spend a moment spinning the pinwheel a few more times before smiling at Iwaizumi knowingly.

“What?” Iwaizumi says defensively.

Matsukawa holds out the pinwheel towards Hanamaki who blows on it once more.

“Our gift is better,” he says smugly.

“I mean, this isn’t a competition. I didn’t ask you to get me anything.”

“Hajime, Hajime,” Matsukawa says. “Go big or go home.”

He sticks the pinwheel back to Iwaizumi’s bag before waving a hand, dragging Hanamaki to his seat with him.

Iwaizumi stares at the pinwheel that’s now slowing to a stop, remembering for some reason, Oikawa’s face when he handed it.

_(Pink) cheeks, (Cream) skin, (Brown) eyes, his hair—_

Iwaizumi will never tire of it.

 

Iwaizumi sees Oikawa’s face by the door as soon as they’re free for lunch break.

At first he blinks in surprise, watches as Oikawa waves at him enthusiastically from where he’s standing outside, obviously not minding the stares he’s getting. He’s even entertaining some of them because he lives on attention. Either way, his smile is infectious and Iwaizumi can feel himself smiling back.

Beside him, Hanamaki goes, “Ah, look who’s here,” before standing to move to Matsukawa’s seat at the back. Iwaizumi doesn’t watch him go, eyes trained on Oikawa whom he motions to come in.

Without hesitation, Oikawa comes bounding inside, going for Hanamaki’s seat and drags it closer to Iwaizumi’s table.

“Happy birthday, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa announces as though he hasn’t been doing it all morning.

“Yes, yes,” Iwaizumi replies knowing if he’ll complain it’ll get him nowhere. He watches instead as Oikawa puts his lunch on Iwaizumi’s table.

“Since it’s your birthday I’m gonna eat with you because I know Iwa-chan doesn’t have fans to eat with—”

“If you’re just going to annoy me through the entire break you can eat lunch outside.”

“Iwa-chan, let’s not be hasty,” Oikawa says, opening his lunchbox and taking out a spoon. “Now say aah~”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow when he sees Oikawa extending a spoonful of food towards him, grinning expectantly. And suddenly, his heart is pounding. It doesn’t matter if people will see, but it’s Oikawa and always, always every time he does this the world gets a little bit better each time.

“I have my own lunch,” Iwaizumi says mechanically, fishing out said lunch out of his bag as proof.

Needless to say, Oikawa starts pouting, forehead crumpling indignantly. He thrusts his spoon towards Iwaizumi insistently.

“Come on, try it, Iwa-chan!” he says, face falling. “I even woke up very early to make that tofu you like…”

Iwaizumi grinds his jaw. Of course, guilt tripping. Typical Oikawa. He eyes the spoon and then Oikawa’s lunch and sees that, _oh_ he’s not lying.

He sighs.

“Give me the spoon,” Iwaizumi says finally and instantly, Oikawa’s face breaks into one of his dazzling smiles and willingly hands the spoon over, watching all the while as Iwaizumi takes a bite of the food he made.

 Iwaizumi chews thoughtfully, purposely trying too hard to pretend like he’s mulling it over before he breaks into an approving smile.

“It’s good. Thanks for making it.”

Oikawa’s answering smile doesn’t come as fast as Iwaizumi expected. Instead, Oikawa is staring at him, somehow lost in thought or contemplation.

“Oikawa?” Iwaizumi says tentatively and Oikawa blinks, now slowly smiling his nose-crumpling smile that Iwaizumi hasn’t seen in a while.

“Glad you liked it, Iwa-chan. It took me a while to get it right,” he says, eyes now leaving Iwaizumi’s face and landing on the pinwheel he gave. “Ah, my gift!”

Oikawa reaches from behind Iwaizumi and grabs the pinwheel.

“Did you like it?” he gives it a spin and from behind the rolling of Spectrum, Iwaizumi can still pinpoint is bright smile.

“I told you I did,” Iwaizumi tells him. “Hanamaki and Matsukawa liked it too.”

Oikawa nods and hums softly, inspecting the colors on the wheel as best as he can. He then lifts it up next to Iwaizumi’s face trying to match colors, tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

“Well,” he says after a moment. “I can’t really pinpoint it yet.”

Iwaizumi’s stomach lurches. He remembers _eleven years, lies he hasn’t told, how, how will I ever tell you?_

Oikawa looks at him and Iwaizumi has a second of irrational fear that Oikawa has read his mind. However, Oikawa merely winks.

“You can see it though,” he hands the pinwheel back to Iwaizumi. “You and your pair can look at it together,”

“M-My pair,” Iwaizumi barely chokes it out, lump in his throat getting larger.

“Yeah but meanwhile…you see those little labels? Very handy you know…if you wanna teach someone…who can’t see yet…,”

The nervous feeling in his chest disappears momentarily as he raises an eyebrow at Oikawa who’s conveniently avoiding his gaze by picking at the tofu in his lunch.

“This is partly a bribe to get me to teach you colors, isn’t it?” Iwaizumi deadpans and Oikawa’s smile never wavers even once.

“Bribe?” he says, voice turning high-pitched. “What bribe? Though it _would_ be nice if Iwa-chan is _very kind_ —”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, snorting.

Oikawa stops mid-explanation and glances at Iwaizumi before he swipes at Iwaizumi’s lunch.

“It’d be nice,” Oikawa repeats.

“I never disagreed though, did I? I keep doing it anyway even if I say so,” Iwaizumi points out and Oikawa’s chopsticks hover above Iwaizumi’s lunch, surprised.

Iwaizumi chuckles, shakes his head.

“Really.” He says as he swipes at Oikawa’s lunch too.

 

“Well I’ll go on ahead,” Hanamaki tells Iwaizumi and Oikawa meaningfully after they finish practice and the rest have finished cleaning up. They’re the last people in the gym, Oikawa insisting he should look through the storage to see if everything is back in place and Iwaizumi stubbornly watching him just in case he starts serving again.

Somehow, Hanamaki and Oikawa have an intense five second staring contest before Oikawa goes, “Oh! Yeah, yeah. We’ll go up right ahead,”

“What?” Iwaizumi straightens up. “We’ll go with you—”

“ _No!_ ” Oikawa exclaims, pulling him back and then gesturing broadly when Iwaizumi scowls at him. “You have to help me,”

Iwaizumi looks at him from head to toe.

“With _what?_ ”

Oikawa thinks wildly for a moment before pointing to his knee.

“My knee brace.”

Iwaizumi shakes his head, not comprehending.

“What?”

Hanamaki claps his hands together.

“That’s right! You have to help him remove his brace. His knee was hurting earlier—wasn’t it, Oikawa?” he says, sounding sympathetic.

Oikawa beams. “Yeah, that’s right!”

Iwaizumi frowns at him in distaste and he almost smacks him by reflex.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands.

Oikawa rubs the back of his neck, at least looking apologetic.

“You know how you are, Iwa-chan you’d make a fuss and stop the practice then…”

Iwaizumi sighs exasperatedly, putting his hands on his hips.

“Ugh, sit down on the bench.”

Oikawa winks and flutters his fingers at Hanamaki.

“See you, Makki.”

Hanamaki returns the gesture before stepping out and Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow at Oikawa who’s obediently sat down, long legs stretched and waiting for Iwaizumi.

“Do you both have to sound so suspicious all the time?” Iwaizumi says.

Oikawa smiles innocently. “Suspicious? Who’s suspicious?” Iwaizumi makes a face and Oikawa points at his knee persistently. “Iwa-chan, my knee,” he says importantly.

Iwaizumi lets out a breath and walks over to him.

“Yeah, yeah,” he squats down and brings Oikawa’s left leg to him. “Tell me if it hurts,” Iwaizumi tells him when he starts to gently pull it down.

He can feel Oikawa’s gaze on him, not piercing but a steady fix that Iwaizumi probably can’t look away from if he’ll meet his eyes.

He does it anyway.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says and Oikawa breaks the stare, tilting his head. “You’re not making this up are you?”

Oikawa puts a hand to his chest dramatically, looking affronted.

“Iwa-chan,” he says in offense. “How could I joke about this?”

Oikawa watches as Iwaizumi carefully takes the brace off until it’s completely free, concentration on his face to be gentle and Oikawa feels a smile on his face once more.

His strong nature, his gentle hands, always looking after him first though he was clearly lying.

 _Whoever your pair is,_ Oikawa wants to frown as his breath hitches silently. _They’re very lucky and I hope they take care of you._

“Done,” Iwaizumi says, standing now. He looks at Oikawa quizzically. “You okay?”

Oikawa nods and reaches for Iwaizumi’s hand.

“Up, up!”

Iwaizumi snorts and pulls him up, eyes Oikawa waving his hands at him and gestures for him to follow.

“Come on, Iwa-chan let’s go.”

 

Iwaizumi should’ve expected it to be a ruse. Clearly he was not being smart enough to trust that mischievous gleam in Hanamaki’s eye before he left. Clearly wasn’t being wise when Oikawa started pushing him ahead, urging him to open the locker room door.

Iwaizumi almost steps back out in surprise when he opens the door and hears the chorus of _Happy Birthday, Iwaizumi-san!_ followed by the popping of Hanamaki and Matsukawa’s party poppers, as they had promised they would do.

He hears Oikawa’s happy whoop and sees the happy faces of his teammates looking back at him as confetti falls on his head, warmth blooming in his chest.

Iwaizumi laughs softly, smiling wide.

“Th-Thank you.”

There’s another whoop and Hanamaki, closely followed by Matsukawa, comes into Iwaizumi’s view and he’s immediately baffled and slightly aghast when he sees what Hanamaki is holding.

It’s a rather charming tower of cream puffs, glazed in white and sprinkled with confetti sprinkles all over it. And it’s _huge_. Hanamaki’s holding it up to his chest and it’s way over his head.

“What the heck is th—” Iwaizumi starts and he hears laughter from the room. Oikawa leans over to him and whispers close to his ear.

“It’s croquembouche,” Iwaizumi can feel his smile and he tries focusing on not making his hands sweat. He turns his head and looks at Oikawa quizzically.

“It’s a tower of cream puffs see?” Oikawa explains.

“He’s doing it for himself if we were to be honest about it,” Matsukawa snorts and Hanamaki gives him the evil eye.

“It’s Iwaizumi’s present. You didn’t have to make it with me if you didn’t want in,” Hanamaki bites back.

Iwaizumi snorts. “It’s not like I can say no to this—ah!” Iwaizumi claps his hands once. “My dad invited you guys to dinner tonight by the way, if you’re okay with it.”

Naturally, there are cheers of assent, mostly coming from Hanamaki and Matsukawa anyway.

“Iwaizumi’s dad is the _best_ cook,” Hanamaki tells the others, carefully setting his masterpiece on the table Matsukawa drags from the corner.

“Cry your tears through a meal,” Matsukawa adds.

Iwaizumi shakes his head, laughing.

“I’m sure he’ll love hearing that.”

“Ah, but now I have to put my art in a box again,” Hanamaki says morosely, now tackling with the box large enough for him to fit in.

Naturally, Matsukawa steps in.

“Or I could put you inside since you’re an art in itself,” he tells him with a wink.

There’s a beat of silence.

Iwaizumi turns around.

“I’m leaving.”

“WAIT!”

 

Oikawa skips ahead of them all the while pulling on Iwaizumi’s jacket sleeve to hurry him up, still questionably energetic even after all the practice they had. Iwaizumi is lagging behind, walking with Matsukawa and Hanamaki who’ve been grinning after tricking the second years into carrying the huge box of the croquembouche just after leaving school. Kyoutani doesn’t look _too_ murderous about it.

When they reach the gate to Iwaizumi’s house, he notices that it’s too bright somehow, like his parents had lit on every light bulb in the house.

“Your house is brighter than my future,” Matsukawa comments.

“Probably intentional.” Hanamaki adds.

Oikawa stops pulling suddenly and makes a surprised noise.

“Ah, Mom!”

He lets go of Iwaizumi abruptly and runs to the front door where true enough, his mother is standing.

“Oh Tooru!” she exclaims, giving her son a one-armed hug and eyes brightening when she sees the rest of them. “You’re finally here!”

Oikawa looks at his mother quizzically.

“Mom, what are you doing outside?”

His mother waves a hand. “Well, I saw you walk up here,” she beams and looks on to Iwaizumi fondly. “Hajime, happy birthday,”

Iwaizumi smiles widely, cheeks flushing.

“Thank you, Mayari-san.”

Mayari laughs softly, addressing the rest of them now.

“Good to see you again boys, good evening!”

There are responses of “Good evening, Oikawa-san,” albeit sounding shy much to Oikawa’s amusement.

Her eyes eventually land on the huge box that Yahaba, Watari and Kyoutani are holding up.

“Oh my,” Mayari says, troubled. She looks over at Oikawa and nudges him disapprovingly. “What are you making your underclassmen carry?”

Oikawa gasps in offense, making Matsukawa and Hanamaki start snorting.

“It wasn’t me!” Oikawa cries and Iwaizumi thinks it’s time to cut in.

“It was a gift,” he saves, still smiling. “We should get it inside, it’s a little heavy.”

Mayari gets distracted instantly.

“Oh yes, that’s right,” she says, kindly. The next second, she’s ushering them in, calling out to Iwaizumi’s mother inside, “Aiko, they’re here!” so that when they walk into the hallway, they see her waving at them cheerfully.

“You made it!” Aiko greets, meeting them and patting Iwaizumi’s cheek affectionately before giving them all a once-over. “Ah, Takahiro, Issei! It’s good to see you both again…goodness, Shigeru-kun what is in that box?”

“Er…,”

“It’s croquembouche,” Oikawa answers sweetly. “Makki made it.”

“Is that so! You always have a knack for those, Takahiro-kun,”

Hanamaki looks pleased enough he’ll probably go to sleep smiling.

“Thank you.” He says.

“Let’s get that to the table then,” Mayari tells Yahaba, Kyoutani and Watari to follow her, Oikawa following them asking, “Where’s Dad?”

Aiko chuckles. “Jirou and Akihito were all over the kitchen earlier,”

“The same as usual, isn’t it, Aiko-san?” Matsukawa says, smiling crookedly and Aiko laughs, nodding gamely.

“Oh, Mom,” Iwaizumi says, gesturing to Kunimi and Kindaichi who’re standing next to Matsukawa and Hanamaki now. “This is Kunimi and Kindaichi, our new first years. They’re from Kitagawa Daiichi too.”

Aiko is pretty pleased.

“Is that right? It’s always nice to have familiar people in the team of course, very nice to meet you,” she pats on Iwaizumi’s arm and gestures them to follow her. “Shall we go? I’m sure you’re all hungry from practice!”

 

Dinner is lively as one would expect, having started off with Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s parents’ repeated admirations for the enormous pastry Hanamaki made as Matsukawa looked on with obvious smugness and it had took a good ten calculative minutes before Hanamaki finally decided which piece to take out first.

Satsuki, Oikawa’s sister, couldn’t come and as Oikawa had predicted, had baked a two-tier cake beforehand for the occasion, having long treated Iwaizumi as another little brother of hers.

The cake is simple enough to suit Iwaizumi’s preference and he loves it. However, now faced with the expectant stares of his teammates as they wait for him to blow the candles, it’s rather pressuring that he gets an unexpected bout of shyness.

He turns to Oikawa instead who’s peering next to him.

“Blow it with me,” he tells him thinking it would erase the bout of shyness. It only made it get worse.

Oikawa is a little perplexed. “Huh?”

Iwaizumi clears his throat.

“The candles.”

Oikawa’s shoulders relax.

“Oh, again! Okay, sure,” he says, laughing a little and scooting closer and taking hold of Iwaizumi’s arm.

 _Like always_. Iwaizumi’s birthdays have always been with Oikawa blowing the candles with him for as long as he can remember.

His touch is too warm but not uncomfortable, even comforting and it makes Iwaizumi forget that in the sea of smiles surrounding him, Matsukawa and Hanamaki’s twin grins are the seemingly at the center of it all.

“Blow your candles!” Aiko prompts cheerily and Iwaizumi eyes Oikawa with a small smile on his face.

Oikawa winks.

“One—two—three!”

Iwaizumi regrets a lot of things, but with this love by his side he can forget about it even for a moment.

 

The team lounges around the living room after eating, somehow getting hold of the photo books Iwaizumi’s mother collected over the years and now and again Iwaizumi hears their delighted laughter from where he is in the kitchen, helping his and Oikawa’s mother take away the plates.

Oikawa is with the team in the living room, having steered them there earlier and is now whining from their obvious teasing. Iwaizumi can only imagine what horrors from the past those photo books hold.

“Why’d you give it to them?” Iwaizumi grumbles to his mother who chuckles.

“Takahiro-kun wanted to have a look,” she says.

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Don’t be like that; you and Tooru were such cute children!”

Mayari laughs in agreement before holding a hand up as though she’s remembered something.

“Oh, before I forget! Takeru wanted me to hand you his present because he couldn’t come,”

This surprises Iwaizumi and he raises his eyebrows.

“Eh, Takeru? He didn’t have to get me anything—”

Mayari waves a hand off dismissively. “Ah, you know you are to him. Like a big brother. Hold on—” she peers outside the window to the lawn where Akihito and Jirou are, talking noisily. “Akihito, dear, where did you put Takeru’s present?”

Akihito leans onto the window peering inside, his smile so alike Oikawa’s, making his eyes crinkle. He waves at Iwaizumi before pointing to the fridge.

“It’s up on the fridge,” he says, a matter-of-factly.

Mayari looks a little distressed.

“Why did you put it on top of the fridge!”

Aiko laughs and Iwaizumi takes it before an episode of teasing ensues.

“Ha, ha I got it, thanks!” he says quickly. The gift is wrapped almost hastily in multicolored gift wrap and there’s a note on top of it written in Takeru’s neat hiragana.

 _Happy birthday, Hajime!_ it says and Iwaizumi smiles. The gift is rectangular and it feels like something a book might be.

“Thank you, please tell him I love it,” Iwaizumi tells Mayari who flashes him a smile.

“Oh, Hajime,” Aiko says. “Don’t forget to go to a Spectrum facility to get your form of legibility okay?”

Iwaizumi nods. All sorts of forms are needed when you finally see Spectrum apparently. Forms proving your legibility, forms proving you’re legally colorblind for when you’re paired and cannot see otherwise despite the medication. It’s pretty taxing.

“Yeah, okay.” Iwaizumi says.

“Your pair can come with you if you want,” his mother says kindly and Iwaizumi almost stiffens.

They haven’t talked about it yet and he certainly hasn’t told her. Not yet anyway but she doesn’t pry and he’s thankful for that.

Iwaizumi smiles flatly. “I’ll…just ask Oikawa to come with me,” he starts his escape, inching towards the living room.

They don’t watch him flee, distracted by other things now.

“Alright, darling,” Iwaizumi hears his mother say before he runs for it.

 

Oikawa is still pealing when he leans on the backrest of the sofa, Hanamaki leaning back his head to look at him, grinning.

“Ah, Iwaizumi-kun!” Hanamaki croons.

Oikawa turns around and faces Iwaizumi, face stricken.

“Iwa-chan, they’re horrible!”

Iwaizumi looks at all of them, confused.

“What’s happening…?”

Matsukawa is on the floor by Hanamaki’s foot, Yahaba, Watari and Kunimi beside him while Kindaichi and Kyoutani looks on, sitting on the other couch.

“What good treasure memories are,” Matsukawa says, holding up the photo book he’s holding so Iwaizumi can see and Oikawa shrieks again.

There’s only one rather large photo in one page, the one which Iwaizumi vaguely remembers back in second grade when they had a play. Iwaizumi was the moon, Oikawa the dashing prince who’s crying in the picture they took together after the waves of nervousness finally came crashing onto him after the play ended. Oikawa had repeatedly nearly forgot his lines if it weren’t for Iwaizumi in the background who had kept glaring at him until he remembered. Iwaizumi had put on a brave face all throughout.

“Ah, good times,” Iwaizumi says.

“IWA-CHAN—”

“What about this one?” Hanamaki says slyly, opening the photo book he’s holding to a page and pointing to the infamous picture that his mother seems to love, the one with him and Oikawa in a bathtub.

It’s not _too_ embarrassing—they’re both just sitting on the tub, 8-year-old Oikawa’s hair full of bubbles.

“Hey, now that’s just a breach of privacy,” Iwaizumi says.

Oikawa is on his full on petulant mode that he’s pouting at the picture, his cheeks noticeably pink.

Iwaizumi exhales a breath.

“Hey, Oikawa,” he smacks Takeru’s gift lightly on his head and Oikawa looks up at him grumpily. “Can you put my things up my room? I just have to help with the dishes.” It’s a lie; the dishes are most likely done by now but distracting Oikawa so that his mood won’t worsen for the night is an easier option.

Either way, he seems pretty willing.

“Okay,” Oikawa says, breaking into a smile and briefly sticking his tongue out at Hanamaki and Matsukawa before grabbing Iwaizumi’s bag and Takeru’s gift and strutting to the stairs.

They all watch him stomp up the stairs before looking back at the pictures.

“You’ve always had your contacts before, huh, Iwaizumi-san?” Yahaba notes and Iwaizumi smiles sheepishly.

“When…I was seven,” he says.

Matsukawa snaps the photo book he’s holding closed and stands up, stretching.

“Alright! We should get going, don’t you think?” he looks at Hanamaki who then nods earnestly.

It seems like an unsaid general agreement because the rest of them start to stand. Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow at Matsukawa but his expression doesn’t falter one bit.

“Ooh, leaving so soon?”

Iwaizumi’s mother appears from the kitchen, Mayari following her watching curiously.

Matsukawa becomes the spokesperson.

“Yep, it’s getting late anyway. The others have homework to do,” Iwaizumi knows for certain that this might be a straight up lie and Matsukawa is so damn good at it. “Thank you very much for having us.”

“It’s a pleasure having you boys around, Issei-kun,” Aiko says affectionately.

Iwaizumi straightens up. “I’ll walk you out—”

“NO!” Matsukawa and Hanamaki exclaim in unison, surprising just about everyone. Iwaizumi takes a step back hastily, scowling in confusion.

Hanamaki rubs the back of his neck, sidling next to Matsukawa smiling slyly.

“It’s fine, birthday boy you don’t have to walk us out,” he says, grabbing Kindaichi who’s smiling politely, with one hand and ushering the others to the hallway with his other hand.

“Yeah, we can handle walking out you just,” Matsukawa makes a sweeping gesture suspiciously pointed at the stairs. “go ahead and enjoy the rest of the night because it’s your birthday.” He says it like it should be capitalized.

Hanamaki is nodding encouragingly. The others are at the hallway now, Iwaizumi and Oikawa’s mother talking to them one last time.

Iwaizumi eyes Matsukawa doubtfully.

Matsukawa just keeps on smiling, finally waving when he steps into the hallway.

“See you on Monday, Iwaizumi,” he says.

 

Oikawa sets down Iwaizumi’s bag on his desk rather gentler than he had intended, still very much petulant about the teasing he got from the pictures though he’s not actually ashamed of those anyway, just unappealing of him to look so unflattering next to Iwaizumi which coincidentally, is all that he looks like in nearly all the pictures.

So he planned to uncap his inner frustrations perhaps by slamming Iwaizumi’s bag on his desk.

Only, he sees his gift, the dainty pinwheel tucked though still sticking out of Iwaizumi’s bag and he halts his plans immediately.

Oikawa breathes slowly, taking the pinwheel out and lying down on Iwaizumi’s bed to play with it. He spins it, seeing the multitude of blacks, the grays, the little whites. It must look interesting; Matsukawa and Hanamaki seem very into it.

“Red…blue…yellow,” Oikawa reads the tiny labels before sighing and putting it down.

His other hand grasps at Takeru’s gift instead, wondering what on earth he could be giving and feels the flat surface of it. _Definitely a book_ , he thinks.

He feels the top of it, where the ends of the tape are and gently peels it off, nosy as ever and he feels around it before slowly taking out what’s inside.

“Oh,” Oikawa breathes.

It’s one of those adult coloring books with fancy and complicated patterns. Coloring books are a customary gift for First Sight gifts. Perhaps Satsuki had told him that.

It’s beautiful as is, one of the pages has a complex mandala, full of lace and flowers and Oikawa smiles imagining Iwaizumi filling up one of these.

His thoughts eventually go back to the pinwheel and he puts the coloring book back in the wrap, taking the pinwheel and giving it a whirl, pairing it with whatever he can see in the room.

_Walls…blue._

_Ceiling…sky blue._

_Bed sheets…white._

_Iwa-chan’s desk…brown._

Oikawa sits up, walks around.

_Iwa-chan’s lamp…yellow._

_T-shirt on the floor…red._

_The door—_

The door suddenly opens and Oikawa steps back, startled, pinwheel still held up in his hand. Iwaizumi looks as surprised as he is, hand on the doorknob. He looks at Oikawa then to the pinwheel in his hand and smiles crookedly.

“What color?” he asks.

Oikawa smiles wide, looking at Iwaizumi in the eye as he matches it with the right color.

“Green,” he says smugly.

Iwaizumi nods and steps inside. “That’s right,”

Oikawa steps aside and watches Iwaizumi walk to his closet and take off his shirt. He looks away; walking to the bed and lying back down on it again.

“You know a lot of colors now,” Iwaizumi says.

“Mostly by chance,” Oikawa says.

Iwaizumi hums. “What did Takeru give?” Oikawa hears him ask and he leans up on one elbow.

“Huh?”

Iwaizumi turns to him; now wearing a graphic shirt Oikawa remembers giving him a few years back. He’s smirking.

“You opened it, didn’t you?”

“Uh…hmmmaybe, hmm…,”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “So what is it?” he moves to his desk now, sitting cross-legged on his chair.

Oikawa grabs Takeru’s gift on the bed and waves it around.

“It’s a coloring book!”

“Ah, is it nice?”

“Yep!”

“You can color it in if you want,” Iwaizumi busies himself with his bag.

Oikawa sits up now, blinking.

“But I wouldn’t get the colors right,” he says.

Iwaizumi looks at him again, tilting his head.

“It doesn’t have to be right.”

Oikawa finds himself stunned, cheeks blushing for whatever reason he doesn’t understand. Iwaizumi is the only person who can catch him off guard.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says unthinkingly.

“Hmm?” Iwaizumi waits.

“Will you—”— _tell me who you’re paired with?_ —“—ever do the thing you promised before?”

For a moment, Iwaizumi obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Oikawa makes a face.

“You know that thing back then. Whoever sees first will describe the other?” he offers a teasing smile.

It comes back to Iwaizumi like a sudden memory. It seemed like too long ago, another world somehow where everything is still a secret.

_Do me a favor Iwa-chan…describe me please?_

“Oh yeah, now I remember,” Iwaizumi says. “Okay then.”

Oikawa raises his eyebrows. “Eh?”

“What do you mean ‘eh’?” Iwaizumi stands and sits beside him on the bed. “You brought it up.”

“You’ll actually do it?” he sounds genuinely baffled.

“Sometimes you really confuse me—”

“You were very hesitant about it!”

Iwaizumi _tsk_ s. “Well I’m going to do it now come on,” he motions to the floor. “Sit on the floor you’re too tall for this.”

Oikawa is suddenly grinning, bright, lively and suddenly excited as he scrambles to sit by Iwaizumi’s feet, facing him expectantly.

And then Iwaizumi cups his face with warm hands and warm eyes, smiling softly and Oikawa feels his heart doing funny little things he doesn’t understand yet.

“Okay,” Iwaizumi says and from then on Oikawa’s sure he can’t take his eyes off of him. “Where to start?” Iwaizumi continues, thumb slowly grazing Oikawa’s cheek in concentration.

“I’ve told you of your eyes, brown not like soil but perhaps lighter than chocolate. You’re always so pale somehow under indoor light, I’m not sure why though…” he takes Oikawa’s hand in inspection. “It’s always been cream,” he looks at Oikawa again, amused. “I can’t really say I have a real life comparison for it though. You’ve always been just you.”

Oikawa’s eyes widen but he doesn’t look away, hands wringing together.

Iwaizumi doesn’t seem to find anything different.

“You have freckles, has anyone told you that?” he says, thumb grazing at it. “They’re very, very light though so you can’t see it very well.”

Oikawa smiles. “Aren’t you just glad you can,”

Iwaizumi snorts. “Shut up. Anyway,” his eyes travel down to Oikawa’s face, landing on his lips. “Your lips are always pink because you bite on it a lot when you’re concentrating even when I keep telling you to stop it because it’ll peel off,”

“But Iwa-chan—”

“Shhh,” Softly. His hands thread into Oikawa’s hair, gentle, gentle, gentle. “You always use so many things for your hair as maintenance it’s pretty amazing. It is beautiful though so there’s that,”

Sometimes, Oikawa thinks in pleasant surprise, Iwaizumi gets very involved with what he’s saying that he forgets his filter altogether. Oikawa finds: he doesn’t mind this at all.

Iwaizumi doesn’t really know what he’s saying but all of it sounds right enough.

“Your hair has always been the same light brown as your eyes though,” Iwaizumi says. “It always gets somewhat lighter in the summer.”

This takes a few moments to settle in before something ticks in Oikawa’s chest that gets him scowling slightly in puzzlement.

“Iwa-chan,” he mumbles. “How would you know it becomes a lighter brown in the summer?” He only started seeing didn’t he? Oikawa knows the basics of his muted sight. It’s hard to distinguish light colors becoming even lighter. But it’s not summer yet—

Something flickers in Iwaizumi’s expression and his hands momentarily twitch against Oikawa’s cheek. But it disappears as quickly as it was there and Oikawa’s left to wonder if he imagined it.

“It’s—” Iwaizumi chokes, trapped.

“Hajime?”

Iwaizumi believes he’s never exhaled that hard until he hears his mother’s voice by the door. Oikawa relaxes and pulls away slightly.

Iwaizumi clears his throat, tries relaxing his pounding heart.

“Yeah, Mom?”

“Your aunt called, can you come downstairs or are you doing something?”

“Uh, I…” Iwaizumi looks at Oikawa, torn.

Oikawa smiles and nods to the door, sliding away from him.

“It’s fine, go ahead.”

Iwaizumi nods stiffly before standing and walking away, rubbing the back of his neck. Oikawa watches him go, bewildered and somehow he feels like he’s floating.

There may be things he doesn’t know yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THAT DESCRIPTION SCENE??? its the reason i started by chance in the first place haha (does a backflip)
> 
> oikawa and iwaizumi's parents love hanging out in each other's houses regardless of the occasion they are Best Pals. goals tbh. and then there's their pining sons...,,  
> oik's got his features from his mom but his height and smile from his dad
> 
> just hang in there the time you're waiting for will come ;)))  
> this may or may not be ending on chapter 12 it's still tentative. thanks for the feedback! ^^
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	10. Ao

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have a problem,” Oikawa tells him, hushed. “that science can’t fix,”  
> He watches Iwaizumi’s eyebrows furrow but his eyes doesn’t leave his and not breaking his gaze, Oikawa clutches at Iwaizumi’s shoulder.  
> “No matter how many chocolates I take won’t solve it,” he continues, his hold tightening probably a little too tight but it doesn’t deter Iwaizumi whatsoever.  
> “Tell me,” he wants to know and Oikawa finds himself relenting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Ao** 青  
>  _Blue_

 He’s not exactly sure why he agreed he’d come; perhaps he likes having to lick at wounds that are only starting to open.

(But where are these wounds from anyway? Oikawa doesn’t know if these should be considered emotional wounds in the first place, it didn’t start out this big of a problem.)

Iwaizumi asked him to come with him to Makulay to get his form of legibility and Oikawa had almost keeled when it hit him—it’s really happened. Sometimes, Iwaizumi feels so far away when he remembers it like this. But he agreed because he wanted to see, he wanted to be there. It’s not as though he can stop it from happening either way.

They were going to meet in the facility and surprisingly, Oikawa arrives first, blinking bewilderedly as he steps into the muted grays and blacks of the facility and doesn’t immediately spot Iwaizumi.

 

**Received [8:05 am]**

_Iwa-chan_

Sorry! Woke up late. Be there soon!

 

 Oikawa laughs softly, shaking his head and pockets his phone after sending a thumbs up. He looks up and eyes the blond receptionist—Tsukishima—talking to a guest, looking less emotionally constipated than usual as he directs said guest to one direction.

Oikawa walks forward and slumps on the front desk, smiling.

“Can I help you?” Tsukishima deadpans, a fair eyebrow rising.

“Ah, no, no,” Oikawa waves a hand flippantly. “I’m just waiting for Iwa-chan to arrive.”

Tsukishima nods slowly. “Maybe wait in the lounge…?”

Oikawa pretends to think about it.

“Nope.”

Tsukishima rolls his eyes and proceeds to ignore him without a problem.

Oikawa watches him with pensive thoughts, eyes as he deftly flips through the guest book with pale fingers, other hand running over his hair once, and a very concentrated look in his eye behind those tinted lenses.

And Oikawa remembers something.

“Hey, Megane-kun,” he says, tapping on the glass to get his attention.

Tsukishima glances at him. “It’s Tsukishima.”

“Tsukishima-kun,” Oikawa continues as though nothing happened. “You’ve met your soulmate, right?”

Tsukishima immediately puts up a defensive stance, adjusting his glasses.

“Yeah…,” he mumbles, waiting.

Oikawa flashes him a smile. “Just asking. Is it nice?”

Tsukishima seems to think about it quietly.

“It is.”

Oikawa clasps his fingers together.

“I bet huh,”

Tsukishima looks slightly disgruntled by this so Oikawa doesn’t continue, lowering his lands on the glass top.

“But,” Oikawa says. “I have a real question this time.”

Tsukishima thinks about it before sighing. “Okay. What is it?”

“Is it…” A lengthy pause. “…possible to fall in love with someone who’s not your pair?”

Tsukishima leans back, almost amused.

“Aha, I think I know where this is going,” he smirks.

Oikawa pouts. “I’m serious!”

Tsukishima huffs. “Oikawa-san, there are more than seven billion on the planet. Any situation you can think of might be happening somewhere out there. What are the probabilities of something happening? There’s at least three percent with a population this large.”

“So you’re saying…”

Tsukishima clicks his tongue. “I don’t know. It could happen. Maybe. Who knows.”

Oikawa doesn’t respond, eyes focusing on the painting right in front of them. He remembers seeing this painting for the first time and wonders now how Iwaizumi would see it. It’s multicolored, Oikawa’s sure and the woman in the painting has everything Oikawa wishes now—challenging. Daring.

“At least three percent,” Oikawa echoes.

“Besides,” Tsukishima looks away. “how sure are you they’re paired to someone else? Unless of course you’ve had formal introductions then my condolences to your feelings or whatever.”

Oikawa feels his cheeks flush and he smacks the glass top indignantly.

“H-Hey! I never said it was me!”

Tsukishima’s unimpressed stare seems to say _are you kidding_ and Oikawa starts to retort again when the doors open and a familiar voice calls out.

“Ah—there you are!” Iwaizumi jogs towards him, catching his breath and looking as though he ran all the way here. “Sorry for the wait.”

He looks over to Tsukishima who stares back, looking slightly surprised.

 _No contacts_ , Tsukishima blinks, eyes Oikawa who’s looking very pleased to see Iwaizumi, and feels an illusionary headache coming on.

“I see,” he shakes his head. _He’s told him something hasn’t he?_

Iwaizumi looks at him.

“Oh, Tsukishima. I’m here to get my form of legibility.”

Tsukishima is still shaking his head, feeling the need to bang his head on the glass top somehow though he rebels against it.

“I get it now.” Why is he always stuck in between two problems? He didn’t know working in the front desk included this. Why can’t guests just talk to each other?

Oikawa gets in his face, peering.

“Get what?”

Tsukishima shoves the guest book towards Iwaizumi, clicking his tongue in annoyance. _Perhaps_ , his conscience says. _Because you were the same._

“Nothing. You can get on with it, Nii-san is free, same clinic.”

“I’ll wait in the lounge,” Oikawa says automatically, smiling and Iwaizumi is actually surprised.

“What, no complaints this time?” he looks pretty amazed and Tsukishima wants to snort.

Oikawa makes a face.

“Iwa-chan, when I complain you get angry and when I don’t you’re _still_ angry you’re like a tiny hedgehog full of rage—”

Iwaizumi pokes him on the side and Oikawa jumps away squealing.

“Well, he’s partly correct,” Tsukishima says in a bored voice.

“I’m going! I’m going!” Oikawa runs away, screeching in a high-pitched voice but he’s obviously grinning, pleased with himself.

“I guess you can’t help it if you’re secretly a child forever,” Iwaizumi says, mostly to himself but Tsukishima hears it and he smirks yet again.

“You did something wrong,” he says and Iwaizumi scowls.

“Yeah, I pretty much got it starting from the part where _I couldn’t tell him even with several chances_ your brother will be disappointed.”

Tsukishima thinks it over.

“I don’t think so. He’s a Swatcher for a reason. They tolerate you for being walking bags of mistakes or something.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Yeah,” Tsukishima’s smile is the usual, taunting smile that generally means no harm. He points a finger lazily to his side. “Clinics are that way but I’m sure you know it.”

Iwaizumi nods back at him.

“Thanks a lot.” He repeats.

 

Oikawa’s thankful he sees a familiar face in the lounge that he immediately forgets how much of a blushing mess he was when he saw his best friend running up to him earlier. Ridiculous.

It shouldn’t be a problem. _But it is, it already is._ And slowly, it’s been creeping up on him, one appendage at a time and he has no defense for it whatsoever—it just keeps on happening.

He sees Sugawara on one of the benches, reading with his hands, his white cane beside him and his ridiculous mind stills for a moment and finds joy in seeing someone he knows albeit they’ve only met a few times before.

Sugawara might have heard someone approaching him because his fingers still when Oikawa comes close.

“Hi Suga, it’s Oikawa,” Oikawa smiles.

He’s even happier when he finds that Sugawara remembers him.

“Oh! I figured,” Sugawara pats the empty space beside him, smiling that his eyes crinkle. “Come sit with me.” He says.

“Sorry, I kind of bothered you.”

Sugawara laughs, shaking his head and he closes his book to prove his point.

“Not at all, it was pretty boring to be honest.”

Oikawa raises an eyebrow.

“Oh? What are you reading?”

Sugawara makes a displeased expression, his face crumpling momentarily and Oikawa chuckles. He wasn’t joking before when he said Sugawara was cute. At least for their age anyway, he certainly is.

“Homework. Really tedious history homework. Do you ever wonder why history is so one-sided sometimes? You just want to smack them.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty awful.”

Sugawara grins. “Are you here for a check-up?”

“Ah! Oh no, no. I’m here with Iwa-chan for—”

Sugawara leans toward him, smile bright.

“Oh that pair of yours!”

Oikawa almost cuts the sentence off and he mumbles the rest of his sentence instead.

“—his form of legibility.”

Sugawara leans back in surprise.

“Eh?”

More mumbling. “Iwa-chan’s here to get his form of legibility. I just…went with him.”

“ _Eh?_ ” Sugawara actually shoots up, standing and the cane beside him starts to fall.

Oikawa is pretty startled, hand reaching out like lightning to grab the cane and he stares up at Sugawara, eyebrows raised.

“Suga be careful—”

Sugawara sits back down slowly, eyes narrowed and Oikawa gives him his cane, Sugawara proceeds to poke him on the shin with it.

“I always thought,” Sugawara says, sounding exasperated enough that he gestures with his hands to prove his point. “you were both joking around when you kept saying you’re both not pairs.”

Oikawa leans forward towards him, appalled. “But I—!”

Sugawara makes a face again, waving his hand. “Oh, I know. Sorry, sorry my mistake. Somehow I thought I’d always be right with this one though I guess there are always exceptions.”

Oikawa is still bewildered.

“What do you mean?”

Sugawara turns to him, face now clear of exasperation, mood obviously turned around.

“Ah, did I never tell you? I have synesthesia.”

Oikawa leans back. “Synesthesia…?”

“Of course it’s pretty hard to believe considering I’m blind but I’m actually pretty good with colors. When someone talks, I can definitely hear the color of their voice that’s why I know quite accurately where you are.  Also…” Sugawara continues to explain animatedly, clearly a story he’s told more than once.

Oikawa has heard of it before. People who can hear colors, see sounds, taste words. It’s a different thing altogether.

“That’s actually amazing.”

Sugawara smiles brightly, eyes crinkling.

“Right, right?” his smile turns gentle. “It’s not like it has a lot of use anyway, I mean I really still can’t see. But whenever someone talks and I hear them, the color just flashes in my head even though I can’t exactly see it. Odd isn’t it? Imagine that.”

“Well, you’re seeing it in a way,” Oikawa says, smiling.

Sugawara chuckles, nodding.

“True. But it wasn’t always this way—only until I met Daichi anyway. It was pretty hilarious too; I was already having a hard time navigating my way to the classrooms on the first day of my first year in high school and some boy came rushing forward without me knowing and he bumped on me quite literally and I fell down it was disastrous,” A soft laugh.

Oikawa, meanwhile, feels a wave of horror and second-hand embarrassment.

“That doesn’t seem to be something to laugh at,” he says.

Sugawara grins. “Oh yes. I gave him quite a scolding, not letting him talk just yet until I finished. I was already pretty frustrated after all; I was already late to class. Told him to look where he’s going and once I felt for my cane I whacked him on the shin. I’m still a little sorry about it,” he’s still laughing and Oikawa feels himself smile.

“And then he said—stammered actually, he said ‘I’m very sorry!’ I think he got the gist of bumping onto a blind person. But then,” Sugawara threads his fingers together. “I couldn’t exactly get mad at him when he spoke again and I could picture this weird thing I saw in my head that kept going every time he said a word.”

He faces Oikawa’s direction, looking embarrassed. “I didn’t know those things were called colors then. I just kept telling him to keep on talking so I could see it again. It was a feat in itself when we figured out we were pairs because Daichi remained blind to Spectrum, but here we are. There’s always a way it seems.”

Oikawa takes a deep breath, looking towards the rubik’s cube right ahead, looking at a handful of children accompanied by their guardians.

“So you can see other’s voices too?” Oikawa asks.

Sugawara nods. “Oh yes. Interestingly, soulmates have pretty similar colors so it can be confusing to me especially if they talk at the same time.  Kuroo and Kenma for example, quite a rare pale yellow color. I wonder often why it’s like that…”

“So…then,” Oikawa’s breath catches, somehow knowing what Sugawara is going to say next.

“And then I met you and Iwaizumi I was surprised to see the same shade of blue but like you told me, countless times too, goodness. Sorry for the mistake.”

“Same color,” Oikawa frowns.

“Well congratulations to him. Who did he say he’s paired with?”

His frown deepens and he shakes his head.

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”

This surprises Sugawara.

“Oh?”

“Oh,” another voice says and Oikawa looks to their side to see Kenma come up to them, looking rather unsure if he should be there.

“Kenma? Is that you, Kenma?” Sugawara says, kindly.

“It’s me,” Kenma says, sitting on the bench across them.

It’s been a while since Oikawa saw him and when their gazes meet, he’s reminded once again of Kenma’s odd-eyed gaze.

He offers him a smile. “How’s Kuroo?”

Kenma returns the smile now that a familiar name is mentioned.

“He’s doing well. He can see yellow now.”

“Yellow?”

Sugawara claps his hands delightedly.

“That’s wonderful! You know, Oikawa, colors come slowly but whatever color they’ll see first varies a lot.”

Kenma touches the tips of his hair.

“He just pointed at me one day and said ‘I can see your hair’ and then he was running around like a child like the usual,” he doesn’t seem annoyed by this at all despite making it sound like it’s supposed to be.

Oikawa muses this. “Yellow,” he mutters.

Kenma looks at him. “It’s different for everyone.” It sounds a little like assurance. “Everyone’s pace is different, I was told.”

Oikawa laughs to himself, nodding.

“Of course. You’re right.”

Sugawara pats his shoulder comfortingly.

“Besides, you haven’t met your soulmate have you? Perhaps when your next Spec Test comes around it’ll come normally for you.”

Oikawa relaxes, stares at his hands as he smiles.

“Yeah. I just worry too much.”

 

Iwaizumi thinks he doesn’t usually feel this kind of sense of dread when meeting doctors as he walks to Akiteru’s clinic. Perhaps when seeing his dentist maybe but his dentist doesn’t know how many awful mistakes he’s done in his life.

His Swatcher is about to.

Akiteru is reading color palettes at his desk when Iwaizumi peers in hesitantly and Akiteru lights up when he sees him, looking almost expectant.

“Iwaizumi! Finally, I’ve kind of been waiting for you to finally book an appointment with me,” Akiteru gushes as he makes Iwaizumi sit down.

If anything, Iwaizumi is slightly dazed by the outburst.

“Waiting?”

Akiteru blinks at him and then glances towards the door.

“Ah, but Oikawa isn’t with you,” he observes.

Iwaizumi clears his throat. “No, I’m here for my...” he mumbles the rest of his sentence. “…form of legibility.”

This surprises Akiteru. He puts the color palettes down, fair eyebrows rising.

“You are? You’ve told him then? You’re not wearing your contacts.”

Iwaizumi feels breathless. Swatchers are amazing at breaking things down, he knows. Knows they’re capable of seeing through you seemingly like psychiatrists or something. They got him before he can say anything.

He doesn’t say anything at first and Akiteru breathes out slowly.

“You haven’t. Not everything.” He says.

“I suppose you’d know at first glance,” Iwaizumi tells him in a defeated tone.

Akiteru shakes his head. “Not at all. Just a hunch over the past meetings. You were wearing your contacts the very first time too. You learned how to deal with it over the years.”

Iwaizumi sighs. “I was seven.”

Akiteru looks thoughtful instead of pitying and that alone makes Iwaizumi’s stress about the situation ebb just a bit.

“Misunderstandings are easy at a young age.” Akiteru says.

Iwaizumi scoffs. “It’s pretty cowardly. I might be the only one this in deep of a problem.”

Akiteru clasps his fingers together. “Oh you’d be surprised, Iwaizumi. The lengths people would go through to hide something. Your eleven years isn’t that long if you’ll compare it to some.”

“It’s well over a decade—”

Akiteru nods. “It is,” he agrees. “But when you finally say it, it’ll feel like it didn’t matter,”

Iwaizumi watches as he laughs softly to himself, pushing back to grab a form in his desk drawer. Akiteru starts to fill it up, continuing to speak, “At least that’s what my brother described it.”

Akiteru pauses writing and holds a finger up, smiling wide. “This is me speaking as his brother, alright? Not as anybody’s Swatcher.” He continues writing. “Kei got six years. He’s not a very open person, see. He likes shutting into himself though that’s probably partially my fault too. When he was in junior high I—” he lets out a breath. “Anyway, it took him a long time to say it because his pair was blind to Spectrum. Like yours. Even still, Iwaizumi, the point is that it doesn’t matter if it’s been six years, or eleven, or fifteen, twenty. There’s always a way to recover things.”

He finishes writing and slides the form towards Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi looks at it, full of jargon and important words that doesn’t give him any comfort.

“Give it a chance. After all,” Akiteru gives him a smile. “he only sees when he’s with you.”

 

Iwaizumi’s legs feel heavy when he walks back to the front desk, the envelope holding his form even heavier.

 _It’s a temporary form_ , Akiteru told him. _Give it a chance._

 _When he’s with me,_ another step. _What does that mean?_

Oikawa’s not in the front desk when he gets there and he stops.

However, there is someone else there, someone laughing as he talks to Tsukishima who’s leaning forward, body relaxed as he props his cheek on his hand, continuing the conversation with ease that he doesn’t show around most people.

Iwaizumi has seen him once before, the boy with freckles.

“Six years,” he whispers, watching them.

Years won’t matter.

He waits until their conversation has died down and becomes a polite time to cut in before he does and walks forward. Tsukishima sees him immediately and he nods at him.

He gestures to his companion and tells him, “This is Iwaizumi-san. He’s a fairly new guest.”

Iwaizumi smiles when their eyes meet.

“Pleased to meet you.”

“And you. My name is Yamaguchi.” Tsukishima’s pair introduces himself with shy enthusiasm, bowing.

Tsukishima is noticeably in a better mood than earlier though he still smirks at Iwaizumi, holding a hand out.

“Let me get that stamped so you can go,” he says, eyeing Iwaizumi’s envelope and Iwaizumi hands it to him wordlessly.

Yamaguchi shakes his head, laughing either way.

“He may seem to be unapproachable—well he is, in a way, but he’s a good person, really,” he says.

Iwaizumi snorts. “I’m sure he is deep inside.”

Yamaguchi smiles. “He’s fared well being in the front desk for over a year now so that’s saying something,” he purses in a laugh. “Are you here for check-ups, Iwaizumi-san?”

Iwaizumi rubs the back of his neck.

“Well, no…not technically. Are you here for yours?”

Yamaguchi looks amused for a moment before shaking his head and he sounds slightly wistful when he speaks again.

“No,” he says. “I’ve finished mine a long time ago.”

“Is that so?” Iwaizumi breathes.

“Yeah,” Yamaguchi gazes towards Tsukishima who’s arguing with Hinata over the stamps, eyes affectionate despite their yelling. “I’m actually a paired Colorblind.” He doesn’t seem sad, only stating what’s to be said.

Iwaizumi hesitates in confusion. He’s never heard of that before.

“It means,” Yamaguchi grins at him, understanding immediately. “That I’ve undergone medication for Colorblind disorder but I still didn’t see Spectrum even after the allotted time.”

Iwaizumi zeroes in on his words immediately.

He doesn’t know if Yamaguchi notices because he merely continues, “It happens sometimes but it’s a rare thing so I’m not really a walking warning sign just because it did to me; people usually see it that way.”

They both watch as Hinata dives underneath the desk, Tsukishima yelling at him to give him the stamp pad and Yamaguchi chuckles.

He looks sheepish, then. “Ah—sorry I just babbled all that without thinking now I really made that sad huh?”

Iwaizumi thinks of Tsukishima’s tinted glasses. The lengths people go through for people they care for are immense. There’s always sacrifices somewhere, immediately adjusting to a difference despite some inconvenience it may bring.

He thinks of his contacts, a decade of it without anyone else knowing because of a misunderstanding he lived with and he thinks of other people out there possibly going through the same way.

Iwaizumi shakes his head. “Nah, I’m glad you told me. It’s good to learn new things. I wouldn’t know about it until you did.”

Yamaguchi smiles kindly, if not a little shy once more.

“Thank you, Iwaizumi-san.”

“You don’t seem sad about it so I guess it was fine to talk about.”

“Oh not at all!” Yamaguchi tilts his head thoughtfully. “You can’t miss something you never had after all.”

“What’s going on here?” Tsukishima has come back, looking disgruntled and a little sweaty. Behind him, Hinata is lurking by the desk, clicking two open staplers menacingly at Tsukishima.

Yamaguchi bobs on his feet, grinning.

“Nothing, Tsukki!”

Tsukishima makes a face, holding out the envelope back to Iwaizumi.

“Sorry about that, here you are,” he says.

“Thank you,” Iwaizumi tells him, taking his phone out of his pocket. “I guess I better get Oikawa back here so we can go.”

“Your pair?” Yamaguchi wants to know.

For once, Iwaizumi doesn’t hesitate. This time, he smiles, gamely with his heart in his hand.

“My pair.”

 

When Oikawa’s phone vibrates, he doesn’t have to check to see who it is. He pats his pocket and stands.

“Ah, it’s Iwa-chan, I should get going,” he pats Sugawara on the shoulder and Sugawara gives him a thumbs up.

“Take care,” he says.

Oikawa waves at Kenma goodbye as he saunters off, taking out his phone to look at the message and somehow expecting one of the grumpy, short messages Iwaizumi usually sends but seeing otherwise makes him stop short.

 

**Received [11:05 am]**

_Iwa-chan_

Hi, we can leave now. I’ll wait for you.

 

He doesn’t know why but a sudden burst of affection floods over him that he grips on his phone tight like a lifeline. A smile makes it way to his face again and his footsteps become lighter.

The night before flashes in his mind, Iwaizumi’s face so close to his, gently crumpling in concentration as soft words of description throw off Oikawa’s world for a few moments though he revels in it.

Oikawa closes his eyes, humming as he walks and he remembers the warmth of Iwaizumi’s gentle hands on his face, caressing his cheeks like it’s the only thing that matters.

He hears Iwaizumi’s voice suddenly, talking to someone else and Oikawa hears his laughter, so rare that he opens his eyes in surprise and there’s a sudden flash of white, appearing and going away so quickly Oikawa almost thinks he imagined it.

 _The pinwheel_ , he thinks in a daze, _is right in front of me._

The Spectrum floods his vision for a mere second or two and he’s disoriented as he sees the hues of the reds he knows hypothetically. The blues, the yellows and all the in betweens.

  Most of all the green, the dark green he knows when Iwaizumi catches his eye and waves at him and Oikawa clenches his fist.

 _This_ , Oikawa’s mind supplies, _is the toughest thing you can give me._

Iwaizumi’s companion turns to see Oikawa too, smiling himself and Oikawa blinks fiercely and he rubs at his eyes in sudden irritation.

Who—what—

“Oikawa!” he hears Iwaizumi’s voice then and he finally looks up, with disappointment when he sees yet again in flat, muted grays.

Pulling himself together, Oikawa shrugs it off and waves at Iwaizumi enthusiastically, entire demeanor changing in mere seconds. He jogs up to them, smile a little too wide.

“Hi, Iwa-chan!” he says in the usual singsong. “Are you finally done being a slowpoke?”

Iwaizumi stares at him monotonously.

“Oh, shut up,” Iwaizumi tells him easily. He gestures towards his company who smiles back at them politely. “This is Yamaguchi.”

“Nice to meet you,” Yamaguchi says and Oikawa is entranced by his freckles for a moment before he nods at him.

“Oikawa,” he introduces.

Tsukishima makes himself known by sliding close to Yamaguchi looking smug and challenging, eyeing Oikawa pointedly,

“He’s my pair,” he says, a matter-of-factly and Yamaguchi looks at him, astonished that he had to mention it.

“Tsukki…?”

Tsukishima is still staring and Oikawa looks away, flushed.

“That’s—That’s good news,” Oikawa stammers.

Iwaizumi looks at them, baffled and he shakes his head. He tugs on Oikawa’s sleeve and pulls him away.

“Come on let’s go, time to leave.”

Tsukishima waves at them sardonically, still grinning.

“Come again soon!”

 

“What was that?” Iwaizumi looks at Oikawa quizzically once they’re outside. Oikawa pouts at him, hooking his arm around Iwaizumi’s own and lays his head on his shoulder.

“Megane-kun has an awful personality.” Oikawa whines and it makes Iwaizumi scoff.

“That makes two of you,”

Oikawa gasps, affronted and he pokes Iwaizumi on the side, making him jump and swear.

“Don’t be so mean Iwa-chan, how will your soulmate ever like you with that attitude of yours?”

That makes Iwaizumi stop walking all of a sudden and he stares at Oikawa for a long, long time.

Oikawa bristles under his stare. “Wh-What?”

Iwaizumi looks away. “Nothing. Everything went well,” he says.

Oikawa looks up at the immeasurable dull gray sky and briefly closes his eyes. He imagines the vast skies changing to the hypothetical blue of them together.

“That’s good to hear.” Oikawa says.

 

***

 

How many days does it take to fall in love? Oikawa learns quickly.

It starts with the furtive glances, feeling like you’ve stolen something once you’ve looked away. It goes without saying: how long has he been doing this until he’s realized?

Oikawa comes by Iwaizumi’s class often now and it’s become an unsaid routine between them two, both of them talking about the differences between their classes, usually the time that makes Iwaizumi very animated and Oikawa can’t help but stare.

The scar on his forehead, his no-longer mismatched eyes, the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs at something vaguely humorous, sometimes leaning so close when he emphasizes his words and Oikawa wants to touch him.

Then their eyes meet and Oikawa breaks away.

 _He is not mine to begin with_. But he’s his as long as they’re here.

 

It’s a good thing he can brush it off easily.

“What are you staring at Iwaizumi for?” Matsukawa comments one time, bewildered and Oikawa almost serves a ball right at him.

“It’s called monitoring, Mattsun!” Oikawa whines.

Matsukawa nods slowly before he smiles and turns to—fantastic—Iwaizumi who has his back turned at them and is talking to Kyoutani.

“Hey, Iwaizumi,” he calls out conversationally and Iwaizumi faces them, puzzled. He looks over to Oikawa immediately, a slight tilt to his head and eyes silently calling out _what’s wrong?_

Oikawa looks away.

“Pass us the ball, won’t you?” Matsukawa says.

Later, Oikawa nearly stumbles in Hanamaki’s path when he suddenly stretches his long legs right in front of him. Hanamaki is slightly, though suspiciously, sorry at least.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Hanamaki wants to know.

Oikawa puts his hands on his hips, making a face at him.

“I almost did!”

Hanamaki makes a big show of putting his hands together apologetically.

“Will be more sensitive next time I swear—ah, Iwaizumi!”

Oikawa’s shoulders sag.

Iwaizumi walks up to them, face questioning and Hanamaki points at Oikawa.

“I almost tripped him,” he declares.

Iwaizumi scowls, confused. “Why would you do that?”

“It was an accident, I swear!”

“Are you alright?” Iwaizumi looks at Oikawa this time, eyes full of concern and Oikawa waves a hand off, laughing timidly.

“I’m fine, Iwa-chan, no need to be a mother hen,”

“I’m only asking, Shittykawa.”

Hanamaki gets up abruptly, starts inching away.

“Anyways! You might need to help him with his braces again, you never know right?” He’s now an arm away.

But Iwaizumi shrugs without complaint.

“Okay,” he says and it makes Oikawa and Hanamaki look at him in surprise.

Oikawa gasps theatrically. “Do you hear that, Makki? No complaints. Hell has frozen over.”

Iwaizumi aims a kick at his good leg.

 

He watches the movements of his hands, his thick but dexterous fingers has always been graceful in Oikawa’s eyes. Oikawa knows the feeling of the calluses firsthand, the years of hardwork and determination those hands had been through and yet they’ve always been there when Oikawa needs to be picked up.

All those years of support and still so, so gentle.

Iwaizumi doesn’t stand up just yet even though he’s removed Oikawa’s knee brace and he puts it beside him, satisfied and he looks up to Oikawa with a small, amused smile.

Oikawa looks back at him, perplexed.

“What?”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow. “What ‘what’? I just thought of something.”

“Like?”

“You get really silent when you’re thinking hard,” Iwaizumi laughs softly. “I was thinking of ways to get out just in case you spring something up on me.”

Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him.

“Iwa-chan, you’re so rude,” he bends down to reach for his knee braces as he speaks. “is this how you’re going to treat your soulma—”

Iwaizumi freezes and instinctively, just as Oikawa’s hands touches the brace, his own hand reaches out for it too though he makes contact with Oikawa’s hand instead.

Oikawa’s breath catches and he never gets to finish his sentence. He turns his head slightly towards Iwaizumi and despite being so close, he’s determinedly looking away. Oikawa swallows and clutches at his brace, moving his hand away when he leans back.

He clears his throat. “Anyway! I was saying, you’re a big meanie, Iwa-chan!” he pushes on though his voice starts to drop. “Who’d like you anyway?”

Iwaizumi doesn’t look at him in the eye again.

“Yeah,” he laughs softly and in the silent court, it’s all Oikawa hears.

 

Oikawa knows it’s highly inappropriate to spend nearly two hours in the bathroom trying to sort out his introspective thoughts. Days of this isn’t getting any better and the more he thinks about it, the bigger the hole he’s falling into.

He leans back on the bathtub, covering his face and all he can hear is Iwaizumi’s laughter in random moments of the day. His best friend laughs easily, voice a little hoarse every time he does, so easily giving out his smiles it’s almost a hazard and it’s only ever immensely satisfying when Oikawa knows he’s behind it.

Oikawa sinks down to the water feeling almost desperate.

_Get out of my head._

The knock on the door makes him sit up hastily and he hears his sister’s voice outside.

“Tooru, Hajime’s on the phone. Will you get it or not?”

Oikawa lets go. “I will, hold on a moment.”

He’s not sure he can get out of this any longer.

 

***

 

July comes in an almost crawling pace though once the first week arrives, it starts to get better and the clock starts ticking once more especially when Oikawa finally gets hold of his third dose, the unwrapped foil of chocolate in his hand and is a constant battle that’s neither winning nor losing in his head.

He’s already halfway through his doses and he wonders if he’s already gotten better enough. He wonders if taking a Spec Test again will get him better results this time and he’s about to grab his phone to brag about it to Iwaizumi until he realizes Iwaizumi will no longer be taking the tests anymore.

His hand that’s outstretched towards his phone clenches into a fist and he falls back onto his bed, suddenly morose.

_What am I in such a hurry for? What am I trying to prove?_

_I can be happy without you—_

_You are not the one I want—_

His phone starts to _actually_ ring this time and it startles him enough to send his chocolate flying onto the floor. He doesn’t bother to pick it up either, grumbling as he grabs his phone and answers it unceremoniously without checking who it is.

“Hello~! Who is—” he starts in a trill.

“Oikawa,”

“—it—Iwa-chan!”

Oikawa feels a rush of heat moving to his face.

Iwaizumi scoffs. “You didn’t even check who it is.”

“Come on, Iwa-chan I recognized you didn’t I?”

Iwaizumi sighs and Oikawa can only imagine him rolling his eyes.

“So? How’d it go?”

Oikawa had skipped practice today and went immediately to Makulay to get his monthly dose. To his disbelief, he saw Kageyama manning the front desk and he tried to be curt hoping he wouldn’t remember who Oikawa is.

Unfortunately, however that didn’t happen to be the case because when Kageyama sees him, his eyes lit up in recognition, immediately going into a stiff and formal demeanor.

“Oikawa-san,” Kageyama greeted him. “It’s good to see you again. You’re doing well with your checkups I hope.”

Oikawa grinned maliciously and leaned on the glass top, trying to rile him.

“What did you expect, Tobio-chan? Naturally Oikawa-san would be doing well.”

Kageyama nodded earnestly. “Of course. I’m sure you’ve surpassed my record. I only started to see on the fourth dose.”

Oikawa leaned back in surprise at the sudden information.

“Wait, you…? You took the treatments too?”

Kageyama looked momentarily bemused. “I did before. It’s not that uncommon as you think, Oikawa-san. I was in the same batch as Yamaguchi though his is not my story to tell. No problem with not seeing at all, however.”

Oikawa let him babble, not exactly listening as he’s deep in thought himself.

“It’s not a race; everyone has their own pace,” Kageyama continued. “Your soulmate won’t run away—”

“I’m not paired,” Oikawa told him flatly and it got Kageyama to stiffen awkwardly.

“S-Sorry for assuming things I just thought…you and the other person with you…”

Oikawa sighed. “Yeah, no.”

Once more, Kageyama bubbled with intricate explanations and apologies. Oikawa could see Hinata rubbing off on him somehow—the rambling, his construction of words, and it made him smile, shaking his head. _He’s a good kid after all. Good for him._

“It’s fine, Tobio-chan,” Oikawa finally cut him off with his usual lilting voice. “Can I go to my appointment now?”

Akiteru was more patient than usual though he went through the appointment with the same questions, asking how he is, how he’s seeing, if he’s having side effects and Oikawa doesn’t have anything else to tell him and yet he feels like Akiteru knows something else he’s not saying.

He doesn’t press it on, wanting to leave anyway.

Getting back home, he had ended up staring at the foil of chocolate, ending up with really personal thoughts, most of them being so farfetched.

“It was fine, Iwa-chan,” he tells Iwaizumi now, examining his fingernails as though they’re very interesting to look at.

“What time did you get home?”

Oikawa smirks. “Who says I’m home? Ooh, Iwa-chan there are lots of people you’re cutting off I can’t hear you—” he bursts out laughing.

Iwaizumi is rolling his eyes again.

“I can see the lights on in your room, dumbass,”

Oikawa’s eyes glances towards his window at once, hidden by his green, alien-patterned curtain. He’s still laughing softly as he gets off of bed and walks to his window, pushing his curtain aside, peering out as he leans on the wall beside him.

Iwaizumi is right on the other side, looking out his window as well and when he sees Oikawa, he scowls, only making Oikawa smile more.

“You’d scare away robbers looking like that, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says into his phone, teasing and Iwaizumi looks unimpressed.

“And you wouldn’t? Look at those horrendous curtains,” he says.

Oikawa pretends to be offended, putting a hand to his chest.

“My curtains are top tier, Iwa-chan.”

Iwaizumi smiles. “So you say. Have you taken your chocolate?”

Oikawa shakes his head. “Not yet.”

Iwaizumi looks like he’s about to say something about it, probably disapproving but he doesn’t do anything else but exhale.

“Right.” Iwaizumi says. “How are you?”

Oikawa raises an eyebrow. “I’m fine, thanks. Wow you sure are a worrywart tonight, aren’t you?”

Iwaizumi mimics him, leaning on his window pane.

“I’m being serious though.”

Oikawa feels a hush, his room suddenly too silent and he doesn’t hear anything else but Iwaizumi’s soft breathing.

“I really am doing fine,” Oikawa says slowly. “I’m not ill or anything not—” _feeling like I’m drowning_. He looks down. “—feeling sick at all. I’m okay.”

When he glances up to Iwaizumi again, a mistake really, he sees him with the same flash of gentle worry on his face and Oikawa’s heart drops to his knees.

“I’m sure you are,” Iwaizumi says. “Are you busy? I’m coming over.”

Oikawa snaps out of his reverie. “Huh? Oh, okay,” he says, feeling like he’s floating and only realizes what he did when Iwaizumi cuts the call and disappears from sight.

“Shit,” he says aloud.

He sprints away from the window and starts picking up things on the floor, haphazardly dumping them inside his closet. He paces around his room in an attempt to tidy things at the last minute and when he hears footsteps coming up to his door, he panics and grabs a pillow and jumps up his bed.

A knock. “Oika—”

“Come in!”

Iwaizumi walks in and the pillow comes sailing towards him. It stuns Iwaizumi to see something green flying towards him and reflexively whacks it away with his hand before it can wallop him on the face.

“What the heck—!”

He hears Oikawa giggling and another pillow in the shape of a hotdog smacks him this time.

 _So this is how it’s going to be._ Iwaizumi grabs the offending pillow and points it towards Oikawa threateningly, a mischievous glint to his eye.

“Prepare to run,” Iwaizumi looms stepping forward and Oikawa squeals as he runs, armed with two pillows himself.

Iwaizumi props the pillow up like a bat and smacks Oikawa right on the back making him yelp when he gets caught and lurches forward. He retaliates with a determined petty cry and tries belting Iwaizumi with the pillow he’s holding consecutively.

Iwaizumi easily dodges most of them, laughing as he twists around in a run and they both end up with Oikawa’s bed a barrier in between them, Oikawa with his arms still raised as he clutches tight on a pillow he’s ready to smack Iwaizumi with once more and Iwaizumi with his hands up as a cover.

But they’re both beaming, both out of breath from laughter.

“Do you yield?” Oikawa taunts, grinning triumphantly.

Iwaizumi scoffs. “As if,”

Oikawa shrieks noisily as he brings down the pillow roughly towards Iwaizumi and Iwaizumi easily blocks it in his hand, other hand grabbing it for himself and he pulls, dragging Oikawa with it so he stumbles onto the bed, still squealing.

 _Now_ Iwaizumi raises the pillow over Oikawa with an evil smirk.

“Hah!” he declares gleefully.

Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him, reaching towards him with no trouble and goes on to poke him at the waist, making Iwaizumi jump and drop the pillow with a _welp_.

“Hey! No fair—”

Oikawa grins maliciously, gathering his blankets and bolting upright. He turns and cackles theatrically, brandishing his blankets behind him like a net and taking advantage of the extra height difference, he easily traps Iwaizumi with it, causing another raucous struggle.

Iwaizumi pulls at the blanket and seizes Oikawa’s hands however it causes Oikawa to lose balance and they both topple over each other, Oikawa’s foot sliding on the bed and he leans heavily on Iwaizumi who turns as he goes down and he ends up falling right on top of Oikawa.

“ _Ouch!_ ” Oikawa whimpers breathlessly, catching his breath.

Iwaizumi doesn’t move, winded himself. His legs are tangled with the blanket, both of them still partially cocooned. He supports his weight however, putting his hands on either side of Oikawa’s head.

“You started it,” he points out, voice turning husky from exertion.

Oikawa stares up at him, heart pounding in his chest and in his ears. It’s too loud in his head and in his heart and with Iwaizumi pinning him here with his gaze there’s nowhere else to look but at the dilated green eyes he knows hypothetically.

Oikawa doesn’t know if his frozen expression betrayed anything because Iwaizumi’s features turns soft ( _heart clenching once more_ ) and he tilts his head.

“What’s the matter?” he murmurs.

 _Several things!_ Oikawa wants to tell him. _My heart is never fine when you’re so close!_

“I have a problem,” Oikawa tells him, hushed. “that science can’t fix,”

He watches Iwaizumi’s eyebrows furrow but his eyes doesn’t leave his and not breaking his gaze, Oikawa clutches at Iwaizumi’s shoulder.

“No matter how many chocolates I take won’t solve it,” he continues, his hold tightening probably a little too tight but it doesn’t deter Iwaizumi whatsoever.

“Tell me,” he wants to know and Oikawa finds himself relenting.

Iwaizumi remembers this happening, back in what seemed so long ago when he was full of hidden ideals and lies and pointless hesitations. Oikawa’s happy smile, his minty breath, his awestruck expression.

This time, Oikawa looks guilty.

“I shouldn’t be in love with you,” Oikawa hears himself say. “but I probably am.”

Iwaizumi doesn’t know if the world has stopped for him to move his hands away from where they are and place them right where it’s supposed to be—holding Oikawa’s face despite realizing his fingers are trembling.

Leaning into each other until their foreheads touch.

“You’re in love with me,” the words spilling like water pouring over.

They don’t know when their lips met until it does, a thousand words unsaid being told by every slide of their lips, chaste meetings burning away to something deeper with open-mouthed gasps of the other’s name, pulling each other close and even closer.

Oikawa’s hands make its way to Iwaizumi’s hair, gripping it between his fingers and he just might take to his grave the sound Iwaizumi growls against his lips. Iwaizumi’s warm hands settle on his collar and a chill runs down his spine, taking his breath away as they break apart.

Iwaizumi looks flushed and beautiful, his eyes heavy-lidded and gaze only for his and Oikawa knows he probably looks the same.

_He’s mine as long as he’s right here._

“Hajime,” a whisper so quiet it’s barely there. “you never told me who.” _So I can savor this moment until it’s over._

Iwaizumi looks conflicted, an inner battle only angry at himself.

“You know who he is,” Iwaizumi says and Oikawa swallows the fear he almost wants to vomit out.

“What?” he furrows his eyebrows, heart sinking.

But—“You know who he is,” a soft echo and Iwaizumi’s eyes becomes the green he knows. “because he’s you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry it took so long! i was on vacation and there wasnt any wifi and i just got back to Manila [clenches fist] happy (belated bc my time zone) birthday iwa-chan!! this story has been going for a year now im such a punctual writer arent i [decks myself]
> 
> > Suga has Synesthesia. That's a real rare neurological phenomenon that unites the senses. IRL some people can even taste colors! It's not mentioned but I think Daichi and Suga's color would be the color of sunset.  
> > Akiteru is a very patient man and given the chance, Tsukki would brag about Yamaguchi endlessly  
> > Mattsun and Makki are hazardous wingmen and Kageyama is such a sweet boy  
> > Oikawa's really fixated with Iwaizumi's eyes and tbh i am too we all have our secrets.
> 
> AAAAAAAAANNNNND that finally happened ohoho you guys ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> i'm currently at the airport lmaoo so feel free to point out typos i can fix. enjoy!!
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	11. Gin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa wants to run up to him when he sees mismatched eyes but he steels himself. When was the first time he’s seen them? Was there ever a time not? He has to _think._ When they met—  
>  “Oh,” Iwaizumi says. He squints and sees Oikawa’s black (dark red) tie in a very sorry state. “Oikawa.”  
> —by chance—  
> “H-Hey, good morning,”  
> —the skies turned blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Gin** 銀  
>  _Silver_

It must have been a false alarm.

It’s no longer green.

 _You know him,_ he does? _Because he’s you._

Oikawa’s heart stops. “What?”

Iwaizumi looks what Oikawa could only describe as pained.

“You heard me.”

Impossible, is what Oikawa thinks. _No. That absolutely can’t—but how?_

Oikawa grabs him by the collar and does not let go.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa chokes, disbelieving. “You’re talking—”

“—nonsense?” Iwaizumi finishes for him, voice turning soft. He touches Oikawa’s hands and gently pries them away from him. He sits up, looking regretful. “I know what I’m saying.”

Oikawa follows him, sitting up and now feels something akin to panic.

“But I’ve known you forever! Are you only telling me this because I said…because I said…” Oikawa feels horrible. _Because I said I love you?_

Iwaizumi clenches his fist, frustrated and he shakes his head fiercely. No. He’s loved him more than this.

“Eleven years,” Iwaizumi says. “Think about what happened. When we met—”

When they met? When did they meet then? Oikawa clutches his chest. He cannot remember everything.

“Tooru?” a child’s voice, somewhere outside the door and it startles them both. “You’re not hogging Hajime to yourself in there again, are you?”

“Ah,” Oikawa gasps and trails off, “Takeru…he’s staying over tonight.”

Iwaizumi lets out a slow exhale.

“Let’s talk tomorrow.”

The panic is back. “Iwa-chan—”

“I’m not going to run away,” Iwaizumi tells him. Not when he’s gotten this far, Iwaizumi can’t just let it slip away. “I wasn’t lying either. You need time to think.”

Not lying. This is real.

“You,” Oikawa utters. “You can see…?”

This time, Iwaizumi feels a rush of warmth and his hand is shaking when he reaches towards Oikawa and threads a hand through his hair.

Brown, auburn, chocolate, teak in the light.

“I can see you,” Iwaizumi says. _I always have._

 

“Did you have a fight?” Takeru asks when he’s walking Iwaizumi out the door. Iwaizumi had thought the guilt would go once he’s told Oikawa but now it feels only heavier.

“Ah,” Iwaizumi says, patting Takeru’s shoulder. He glances towards Oikawa’s window, covered by his obnoxious curtains. There’s a shadow pacing back and forth inside.

“It’s my fault.” Iwaizumi tells Takeru who seems surprised to hear this.

“Eh?” Takeru says. “What’d you do?”

“Hmm, it’s not something easily forgivable I think.”

Takeru looks thoughtful, scrunching his face and looking so alike his uncle for a split-second.

“That’s,” he says. “preposterous.”

Iwaizumi chuckles. “Big word.”

Takeru grins. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it though. It’ll be okay.”

Iwaizumi cracks a smile. “Hopefully.”

Takeru tilts his head. “Hey, Hajime, your eyes have been different aren’t they?”

Iwaizumi blinks. “Ah, you noticed. Does it look bad?”

Takeru laughs, shakes his head. “Not really.”

 

Iwaizumi feels like he’s about to have an appointment with death come next morning and he stares at his reflection in the mirror for a considerable time, still deciding how he’s going to face today.

Dark circles under his eyes, his black hair a mess, eyes a dark olive today.

His eyes fall on his contacts case.

 

Oikawa’s palms are already sweating once he’s making his way to the shed going to school. Every one of his footsteps feels like a dream. His breakfast this morning, the colors fading in and out, that in itself feels like a dream.

The kiss—Oikawa’s cheeks burn and a hand comes up his lips—no, that was definitely a dream wasn’t it? It was definitely…

_Because it’s you._

A dream.

Oikawa’s steps still and he’s breathing just a tad bit heavier than a second ago. Someone is waiting for him at the benches and this seems all too familiar.

Iwaizumi seems relaxed as he stares at the pinwheel he’s holding. The wheels are turning lazily because of the wind and he counts down the colors he sees as it whirls around. _Blue, green, yellow,_ he sees Oikawa in his periphery. _Green, yellow, blue._

He turns his head to face him, pinwheel now abandoned.

Oikawa wants to run up to him when he sees mismatched eyes but he steels himself. When was the first time he’s seen them? Was there ever a time not? He has to _think_. When they met—

“Oh,” Iwaizumi says. He squints and sees Oikawa’s black (dark red) tie in a very sorry state. “Oikawa.”

—by chance—

“H-Hey, good morning,”

—the skies turned blue.

“Your tie’s really crooked,” Iwaizumi says, sighing and he shoves the pinwheel on the side of his bag.

Oikawa’s hands hover over his tie, mind blank.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi finally smiles, amused. “Seriously.”

He walks up to Oikawa and all Oikawa could do is stand there as he watches Iwaizumi’s fingers, quite smaller but thicker than his, deftly redoes Oikawa’s offending tie. Iwaizumi’s eyes are trained on them as well, the black, the lighter gray.

“Thank you.” Oikawa says when Iwaizumi finishes.

Iwaizumi does not let go.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

Oikawa makes a noise of complaint. They are _not_ having this now.

“ _Iwaizumi Hajime,_ ”

Iwaizumi lets him go but continues anyway.

“I know it’s been bothering you. I’m sorry.”

“Listen—”

“I know last night you probably didn’t believe me but I’m not lying I should have told you I—”

“ _Hajime!_ ”

Iwaizumi stops abruptly, flustered. He coughs, suddenly feeling awkward and he shoves his hands in his pockets, looking away.

The sight of Iwaizumi’s nervous stance brings warmth to Oikawa’s chest somehow. Nobody else can ever see him like this, he realizes.

“I’m still thinking,” Oikawa says. “because you told me to and it’s unfair in your part if I just whine about my side without thinking about it.”

“No it’s not—”

“Gee, you’re so stubborn, Iwa-chan.”

Iwaizumi makes a face, eyebrows knitting together, looking like he wants to say more but decides otherwise and Oikawa wants to smile again when he sees it.

“Let me do my thinking first unlike you I won’t combust—”

“Oikawa—”

“—and then I can _cradle_ you in my arms—”

“Oh fuck off,” Iwaizumi grumbles moodily and Oikawa cackles. Iwaizumi turns around to escape, mumbling, “we’ll be late for class, dumbass,” and he continues muttering to himself as he walks off, cheeks a darker color now. Oikawa gauges he’s very easy to tease at this point so he gives it a shot.

“Iwa-chan,” he calls out once he catches up to Iwaizumi.

“What?” Iwaizumi snaps.

Oikawa leans close to his ear, making sure he has space to run ahead just in case.

“You’re very handsome with odd eyes.”

Iwaizumi sounds like he’s choking when he yells, “OIKAWA,” and Oikawa makes a run for it, laughing as he flees before a fuming Iwaizumi can grab him by the neck.

 _It works_ , he thinks in amusement.

 

But his confusion has not faded and thoughts and excuses keep drifting in and out of his head, keeping him distracted from thinking of proper, coherent explanations of things.

The words, _I’m his soulmate_ , flashes in his head right as he’s in the middle of class and his teacher’s words suddenly dissipate from his current attention span, passing right to the other ear as he almost has a mental breakdown with the sudden rush of emotions that makes his face feel very warm.

Oikawa realizes, _he’s seen me forever_ and feels more sad than betrayed because then it would mean it was his fault right from the start, isn’t it? He’d been blind to this from the start and if only he had just seen what Iwaizumi saw that time…

(When was it? How did Iwaizumi cope up with all of this? Is all of this real?)

Suddenly, Oikawa can’t handle this at all.

 

For what seems to be the first time since the year started, Oikawa isn’t around when practice rolls in and his very palpable absence baffles everyone. Hardworking and critical Oikawa-san would never pass a chance to practice his serves over and over.

“Hmm,” Mizoguchi hums as he’s looking over at them, “where’s Oikawa?”

All of a sudden, Iwaizumi finds all eyes on him much to his disbelief. His palms start to sweat, anxious with the sudden attention. He hasn’t seen Oikawa all day.

“We’re not in the same class anymore,” Iwaizumi settles.

“Oh, right.” Mizoguchi says.

“Perhaps he’s sick,” Matsukawa offers although the mere thought of Oikawa being sick sounds rather far-fetched as he would deny he ever was than take an absence.

“Or had immediate errands,” Hanamaki adds, helpfully, which sounds less unreal than the former.

“Hopefully not sick.” Mizoguchi sighs, shaking his head. “Well then, Iwaizumi when you do see him, tell him off for me.”

There’s a rumble of laughter being kept to themselves and Iwaizumi relaxes. This is the usual.

“Okay,” Mizoguchi starts instructing, “go start warming up then!”

As it turns out, Iwaizumi doesn’t get to tell him himself, at least not directly anyway. When he drops by Oikawa’s house later that night, he only gets to see Takeru when he opens the door for him.

“He hasn’t come out of his room since coming home from school since he says—exactly like this— _‘I’M THINKING!’_ ” Takeru’s voice goes up three octaves trying to mimic his uncle’s whine and Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow.

“Is he now,”

“So he says.”

“Do you think he has hard homework?” Takeru guesses, bobbing on his heels. “I also get a little crazy when I have really hard homework.”

 _Highly unlikely._ Iwaizumi fishes out his phone.

“I’ll just try calling hi—oh,” he’s cut off when his phone vibrates with a message, suspiciously timed with his words. “here we go.”

 

**Received [8:17 pm]**

_Asskawa_

already apologized to mizoguchi-sensei!!!!! no frowning!!

 

Didn’t even give any explanations. If anything, it _makes_ Iwaizumi frown. Nevertheless, he stows his phone away, deeming it useless.

“Am I right?” Takeru wonders.

“Your uncle,” Iwaizumi says, “refuses to tell me what he’s feeling sometimes.”

“Ever wonder why a lot of girls look up to him and don’t know he’s awkward with feelings?”

The remark makes Iwaizumi laugh and he ruffles Takeru’s hair.

“Love is blind, Takeru,” Iwaizumi tells him and the irony bites.

 

To Iwaizumi’s frustration, he doesn’t see Oikawa the next day and is barely surprised when he doesn’t show up during practice either, a second bizarre strike and without him and the sound of his ceaseless serving, the court seems empty even with the rest of them there.

Iwaizumi knows when Oikawa starts off this kind of war on his own and thinking too hard, he gets too enveloped with his own thoughts that he starts taking down everything else.

He hopes it’ll end soon.

 

Naturally when the third day rolls in and Oikawa’s grand presence is still greatly AWOL, people start to ask. Iwaizumi, in particular, gets ambushed by Matsukawa and Hanamaki when he’s eating his lunch on the rooftop during the break.

“Why Issei, look who’s here,” Hanamaki drawls as though his intentions weren’t clear from the start.

“Are you moping, Prince Charming?” Matsukawa adds.

“Can’t I eat lunch in peace?” Iwaizumi deadpans.

The two of them make thoughtful noises though not at all sincerely considering it as they sit down on either side of Iwaizumi, leaning their weight onto him in what seems like an effort in comforting him as they take turns patting his head.

“There, there,” Hanamaki says, condescending.

A nerve twitches in Iwaizumi’s temple.

He shoves them both off of him bodily, angrily shouting, “Off! Off!” which has them both snickering.

“What are friends for?” Matsukawa grins.

“I ask myself every day.”

Hanamaki puts an arm around him roughly and a carrot almost falls off Iwaizumi’s chopsticks.

“You’re so _serious_ , Iwaizumi. I’m starting to believe those rumors Oikawa started about your wrinkles.”

“Shut up, please, Hanamaki.”

“Speaking of our little friend…” Matsukawa starts and Iwaizumi feels the sense of foreboding.

“Where’s been our friend running off to these days?” Hanamaki asks casually.

“He won’t tell me,” Iwaizumi answers truthfully and though he expects the raised eyebrows, they appear so fast it’s almost offending.

Iwaizumi clicks his tongue, annoyed.

“But—”

“There’s always a but,” Matsukawa stage-whispers to Hanamaki, interrupting Iwaizumi’s sentence.

Hanamaki grins. “That’s always the best part.”

Iwaizumi moves to get up.

“I’m leaving.”

Two pairs of hands immediately grab hold of him and bring him back down on his butt.

“You were storytelling, Hajime-kun,” Hanamaki says sweetly.

For a second, Iwaizumi feels himself tense, remembering what he was going to reveal to them. Then he relaxes not too long after, knowing there’s already been too much damage done he can’t afford to be ashamed at this point.

He sighs and Matsukawa and Hanamaki lean in closer again.

 “I told Oikawa I can see him.”

There’s an obvious, albeit silent moment of confusion and Matsukawa actually inclines his head.

“But isn’t that a given…?”

Iwaizumi bites the insides of his cheek.

“Yeah,” he says, “only that I’ve seen him like this since I was seven.”

Iwaizumi knows them both well enough to know surprise colors their face in the form of a steady, blank stare.

“Seven,” Matsukawa says and discreetly holds up his fingers, counting backwards.

Hanamaki, meanwhile, sucks in a breath loudly.

“THEN THAT ONE TIME YOU ATE A LEMON BECAUSE I SAID IT WAS ORANGE YOU _KNEW_ IT WAS A LEMON?” Hanamaki yells.

“I could tell because of the shape from the start—”

“THE COLOR, _THE COLOR_!”

“The shape—”

“ _You’re allergic to lemons_ ,”

Iwaizumi feels sheepish. “Well, I didn’t want you to know.”

Hanamaki buries his face in his hands.

“Your face was so swollen I thought Coach Irihita _and_ Oikawa was going to kill me.”

“They should have.”

Matsukawa grins lazily, eyeing Hanamaki with a glint of teasing.

“The feeling of being a fool is just sinking in huh?”

Hanamaki reaches around Iwaizumi just to smack Matsukawa upside the head.

“Shut up! I was just joking around!” Hanamaki gasps suddenly, worried. “Oh god, how many times have I done that…?”

Iwaizumi sneers, “One time you said it was a mosquito bite on your neck but I knew—”

“ _IWAIZUMI_ ,” Hanamaki yells once more, his face has gone unbelievably pink and it’s pretty hilarious. Matsukawa doesn’t seem too embarrassed about it, though.

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you,” Iwaizumi says and Hanamaki finally snaps out of his embarrassment to smack him on the shoulder though not from anger.

“I didn’t think you’d say you’ve been seeing for eleven years! Eleven!” Hanamaki says instead.

Iwaizumi blinks. “What?”

“I thought you’d say maybe…” Matsukawa says slowly, gesturing, “five years.”

“Bullshit! I thought three!” Hanamaki argues.

“You, what,” Iwaizumi says blankly.

“It was just wishful thinking, Iwaizumi. We didn’t think it was _real_.” Matsukawa says.

Iwaizumi’s shoulders slump. “Right,” he grumbles. “Well, there you have it.”

“That’s such a long time,” Hanamaki muses to himself. “Although I heard it’s more common than we think.”

“Right,” Iwaizumi repeats.

“Huh,” Matsukawa hums. “So, Oikawa?”

Iwaizumi lets out a breath. “Hopefully he doesn’t hate me too much.”

Hanamaki snorts. “Oikawa? Oh, please. If anything he’ll end up hating _himself_ than you.”

Iwaizumi freezes just then. As soon as he hears it, time seems to stand still. He hasn’t really thought of that prospect and knowing Oikawa, it’s a prospect that’s highly possible.

“Hiro,” Matsukawa chides, breaking Iwaizumi’s sudden epiphany.

Hanamaki smiles, unapologetic but not being unkind.

“I’m not trying to be mean or anything,” Hanamaki says. “I’m only saying Oikawa tends to internalize everything and it can get pretty awful. You’ve got to talk to him.”

“We can tie him up for you if you want,” Matsukawa offers.

“How nice,” Iwaizumi says with faint sarcasm though what he’s really feeling is anxiety that’s slowly tipping over

Matsukawa puts an arm around his shoulder, consoling.

“Hey, when’s there a time you both got out okay after a misunderstanding?” He says, “That’s right, practically all the time. This time will be like one of those ‘it’ll be a breeze’ moments.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious.”

“Yeah.”

Hanamaki grins slyly. “Sock Oikawa a good one too for missing all those practices or Prince Charming Number Two will never learn.”

This time, Iwaizumi huffs, laughing.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

 

Oikawa can imagine that Iwaizumi’s frowning right now for some reason and that image has been following him since the past few days they haven’t seen each other. It’s a very convincing image his will almost bends.

He’s skipping practice again for the third time now and it’s all new to him, getting this much time to himself that he doesn’t know what to do with it. Still, it makes him incredibly guilty knowing he should be out there, knee brace on and _running_.

But he’s right here, right in front of a bookstore a little away from home and he doesn’t know how he eventually got here. Probably took a different route in the train.

The sign is attractive—there are a lot of stars decorating the board that surrounds the kanji Oikawa doesn’t take time to read, it’s obviously a bookstore anyway.

He pushes the door open, deciding to stay since he’s come all this way anyway and there is quite the number of people inside, more than what he’d expect he’d find in a bookstore. Majority of them seems to be teenagers like him, in uniforms Oikawa doesn’t recognize. They’re loitering around in pairs so Oikawa moves up to the next floor and he finds it much more pleasant and less crowded.

He starts to wander, thoughts floating as well and he doesn’t latch on any of his scattered ideas just for now. Oikawa looks at the titles of the books and not really taking any word in only finding that there are mostly academic books up here.

Oikawa lets his hands linger on the book spines as he passes by absentmindedly.

 _I wonder if they have books about color,_ he wonders. Perhaps Iwaizumi would like those. It could be a peace offering of some sorts.

 _I love you but I don’t deserve you_ kind of thing. Very funny.

Oikawa sighs, rubbing his eyes but walking on forward and doesn’t see the ladder propped against the shelves until his hand grasps it.

Oikawa’s eyes snap open and the ladder rattles dangerously, followed by a surprised gasp.

“Oh!” someone says and Oikawa looks up. “You startled me!”

“Ah,” Oikawa mutters. It’s a familiar face he sees that’s smiling down at him although nervously. “I’m sorry.”

He remembers now, from the facility. Tsukishima’s pair with the freckles.

“Yamaguchi-kun,” Oikawa breathes.

Yamaguchi takes his time slowly descending from the ladder, a book in his hand, before he takes a look at Oikawa fully, smiling warmly.

“Oikawa-san,” he says and Oikawa’s amazed he still remembers his name, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

He’s wearing his uniform still, Oikawa sees, although Yamaguchi is also wearing a little apron with a nametag over it so he assumes Yamaguchi works here.

Oikawa rubs the back of his neck.

“It seems like I just wandered in here,” he admits.

Yamaguchi chuckles. “I see. I just came in for my shift.”

“Is that so? I’m sorry, am I bothering you? Sorry about the ladder I wasn’t looking—”

Yamaguchi waves a hand.

“It’s fine, it’s fine don’t worry,” he motions to the book in his hand, “I was just getting a book for—oh!” Yamaguchi turns around and calls out towards the other rows of bookshelves, “Tsukki, I got your book!”

 _Huh_ , Oikawa thinks for a split-second. He knows that Tsukki.

Unsurprisingly, and quite a hilarious turn of events, Tsukishima steps away from the tallest bookshelf, probably why Oikawa didn’t see him immediately. When he sees Oikawa though, he momentarily freezes in astonishment. It’s pretty funny.

“Oh, look who it is!” Oikawa says, just to rub it in.

Yamaguchi merely laughs, oblivious. “Yeah, he comes here often,” he tells Oikawa lightheartedly.

Tsukishima looks vaguely suspicious when he comes up to them.

“Hello, Megane-kun,” Oikawa coos and a nerve jumps in Tsukishima’s temple but he nods in greeting anyway.

“Here’s your book, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi hands it to him and it’s outstanding how Tsukishima’s attention immediately zeroes in on him. Soulmate magic probably, Oikawa thinks.

“Thank you,” Tsukishima says and Oikawa can’t see through his tinted glasses very well but he’s sure his eyes are smiling.

Yamaguchi is doing a lot of smiling himself, patting Tsukishima’s arm like he’s about to leave.

“You can find me around if you need anything okay?” He includes Oikawa in the next, apologetic, “I have to get to work now, sorry! It’s nice to see you again!”

And finally back to Tsukishima, now with a kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll see you later, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi says hurriedly and he speeds away to another floor.

There’s a brief awkward silence after Yamaguchi’s absence.

“Well!” Oikawa says, breaking that silence and clasping his hands together. He gives Tsukishima the once-over before grinning, “I actually haven’t seen you before in uniform can you believe?”

Tsukishima doesn’t seem pleased about this but he doesn’t look angry either so it must be fine. He’s wearing the same uniform as Yamaguchi, it seems and the entirely dark color makes his hair look shades lighter.

 _Yellow_ , Oikawa remembers what it’s called.

“It’s the first time you’ve seen me outside of Makulay after all,” Tsukishima says.

“Yeah, and you were far more enthusiastic back there,” Oikawa notes. “I’m not stalking you I swear.”

Tsukishima grimaces. “I hope not.”

“Hmm,” Oikawa moves forward again, not actually looking at the books once more now that he has a moving distraction. He’s not presuming Tsukishima would follow him but Tsukishima does anyway. “I’m not, I swear.”

“What brought you all the way here then?”

Oikawa almost pauses. “I’m not sure either,” Oikawa stops this time. To his immediate left is a book about colors, aptly called _Chrome-Sighted_ and he stares at it. “I think I may be escaping.”

Oikawa hears Tsukishima scoff under his breath and he whips his gaze towards him, pouting petulantly.

Tsukishima raises his eyebrows.

“Escaping from what?”

Now that he’s actually faced with this question, it’s a little hard to digest. Oikawa takes a breath, “Escaping evidences of my failures, maybe. I don’t want to be disappointing.”

This time, Tsukishima’s eyebrows knit in confusion.

“Your failures?”

“Yeah. It’s very glaring.”

Tsukishima looks very thoughtful. “I think I’ve heard that one before.”

Oikawa blinks. “What?”

Tsukishima taps his foot, deciding.

“Where’s Iwaizumi-san?” He wants to know and Oikawa tilts his head.

“Why are you looking for Iwa-chan?”

Tsukishima smirks confident and Oikawa doesn’t quit expect his honest answer:

“Because he reminds me of me, sometimes.”

This stumps Oikawa for good measure. How could sweet, thoughtful Iwa-chan be a nostalgic reminder?

“W-What do you mean?” Oikawa stammers.

Tsukishima’s gaze flashes to the book Oikawa was eyeing just moments before.

“He told you didn’t he?”

Oikawa’s breath hitches. He watches as Tsukishima reaches over and takes the book out of the shelf.

“How did you know that?” Oikawa mutters. “How _would_ you know that?” And a slight panic, “Did you know from the start—?”

Tsukishima looks really tired of this. He flips over the pages nonchalantly and the colors of gray, black, white and the occasional weird flashes of what Oikawa knows as red and yellow and everything mixed in together, flashes in his vision.

“He never told me himself, don’t worry about it.” Tsukishima says. “It just takes one to know one.”

Tsukishima stops on the page where there’s a very complex looking color wheel, the most intricate Oikawa has seen so far.

“I’m afraid I can’t follow,” Oikawa admits. He’s close to exasperation at this point and he steps closer to a shelf to lean on it.

“I’m not very sure how many years you got,” Tsukishima says, now flipping the pages again, “but I got six.”

 _Eleven,_ Oikawa wants to tell him, _I could’ve been there for eleven._

“Of what?” Oikawa says slowly even if he knows.

“Of silence,” Tsukishima says, “of stupidity. Of cowardice, I don’t know, you get the picture. I’ve always been emotionally constipated for a while so it got really hard.”

Oikawa looks towards where Yamaguchi had disappeared earlier.

“He didn’t know,” Oikawa states.

Tsukishima nods to himself. “He didn’t. He was, if I may say, like you. ‘Colorblind’ is what people usually term it,” his nose wrinkles at that, “and he still is although that’s a different thing entirely.”

“And,” Tsukishima continues, smiling a bit ironically, “it’s a little funny he said the same thing as you when I told him.”

Oikawa looks back at him, eyebrows scrunching up and he waits.

“He thought it was his fault,” Tsukishima says and the tone of his voice clearly tells how much he dislikes it. “I guess people tend to blame themselves even if the fault wasn’t theirs.”

He lets out a breath, “I really hated it. I thought at first perhaps he’d be mad at me—betrayed even because I didn’t say anything and yet he blamed himself. A little frustrating to be honest. Kind of hoped he’d be angry at me instead, really.”

Oikawa gets it. He really does but it’s just—“I understand him you know. If I had just started seeing then—”

Tsukishima clicks his tongue, annoyed.

“But it didn’t happen, you get it?” Tsukishima says, sighing. “No offense, Oikawa-san but I’m trying to help out here—out of work too—you have to see what I’m trying to tell you.

“It’s never really anyone’s fault when you’re young and you suddenly see and you don’t know what to do because your other half can’t. When you’re the other half, you wouldn’t know either, would you? You can’t put the blame anywhere.”

Tsukishima breathes hard, flustered when he finishes. “That’s probably the longest thing I’ve said to anyone in a while.”

Oikawa can’t believe it. For the most part, he just got lectured by a 15-year-old.

Watching Tsukishima at the moment though, who’s now wiping sweat off his forehead and looking uncomfortable as he mumbles complaints under his breath, it’s comforting to see somewhat.

“You must really love Yamaguchi to get all that out,” Oikawa jokes and it earns him a venomous glare.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Tsukishima says, rolling his eyes. “Iwaizumi-san is probably looking for you too, you know. So you should…,” he looks a little embarrassed, “stop escaping.”

 _Stop escaping._ Oikawa raises his eyebrows.

“Your brother would be proud of you, you know,” Oikawa says, trying to be serious.

This gets Tsukishima spluttering, definitely embarrassed.

“Now you’re just pushing it,” he says and Oikawa grins at him.

 _Stop escaping._ “Yeah,” Oikawa answers aloud and Tsukishima looks at him in puzzlement.

Oikawa clears his throat. “I mean, no. I was being serious,” and when he laughs this time, it’s genuine. “Thank you, Tsukishima-kun.”

No escaping.

 

And he doesn’t.

The first thing he does of course is to send a very ominous _See you tomorrow!_ to Iwaizumi without any explanation whatsoever and the moment it sends he could almost feel Iwaizumi’s death stare from the window.

Not that it matters now; Oikawa’s not about to lose him over this and he’s going to make sure of it.

This time, he goes to practice, making sure he’s well ahead of everyone and he profusely apologizes to the coaches for the repeated absences, just to be thorough.

He goes through everything twice, just to be clear. His warm ups, his knee braces, his uniform, the swirling colors in his vision and the ball in his hand as he readies for his service. He thinks of nothing else yet but his movements, while he’s still alone and waiting.

 _I’m facing this today_ , and he does his run-up, his jump.

 _I’m not going anywhere,_ and the ball connects with his palm.

It feels good, methodical as he does it over and over again, his muscles welcoming the warmth and his head is clearer although he could still feel the nervousness eating at him when the others start to arrive.

The younger ones come first, greeting him though not bothering to disturb him with his practice. And then Oikawa hears his voice and he just knows he won’t be able to do a good serve this time.

Amusingly, it’s Hanamaki and Matsukawa who glomps on him, each of them giving him a rough noogie for “taking an abrupt vacation off halfway into the schoolyear” and Oikawa absolutely whines in return, making several swipes at them and complaining about his hair and only until the pair decides to let him go does Oikawa see Iwaizumi standing next to them.

“Ah, Iwa—” Oikawa starts off. Iwaizumi doesn’t look mad, though. If anything, he looks amused, definitely surprised and he’s looking at Oikawa like he hasn’t seen him in forever and not just 3 days.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi says and his voice is very warm.

Oikawa laughs breathily, “Iwa-chan,”

Matsukawa and Hanamaki look at them both briefly before sputtering random excuses about leaving before they actually run away and Oikawa is grateful for their sheer awkwardness that it’s relieving some of his.

“Good to see you again,” Iwaizumi says. “Are you feeling better?”

Endearing, that’s what he sounds like.

 _I thought about it, Iwa-chan!_ Is what he wants to tell him.

“Eh, I wasn’t sick, so yeah,” is what comes out of his mouth instead.

Iwaizumi fumbles with his fingers and he clears his throat.

 _Nervous_ , Oikawa decides. He’s as nervous as he is and Oikawa wants to laugh at it all. Or vomit, whichever comes first. They’re very dumb to be getting it through like this.

Oikawa swallows his nerves and goes, “Iwa—” at the same time Iwaizumi brilliantly decides to speak up and go, “Tooru—” and they both end up looking like idiots staring at each other in surprise.

“I’m—” Oikawa tries again.

“ALRIGHT!” Mizoguchi interrupts in a booming voice, clapping his hands once to get their attention. “If you’re done with your warm-ups kindly come here!”

Needless to say, Oikawa starts to panic and he obnoxiously waves his hands to express this.

“Ah, no, wait—Iwa-chan!” He calls out and Iwaizumi looks startled by his exclamation seeing how he hasn’t moved from his place yet.

“Let’s talk later! I mean, after this,” Oikawa sounds pathetically desperate. “I won’t run away, I promise!”

Iwaizumi blinks and then bursts into laughter.

“Don’t worry, Asskawa,” Iwaizumi beams and he pulls Oikawa closer by the arm to drag him to their advisor. “I wasn’t thinking you were going to.”

 

In a turn of events, Mizoguchi lets Oikawa go early since he came in before anyone did anyway and he quickly gestures to Iwaizumi he’ll be waiting in the locker room before he quickly scampers away out of sight.

Iwaizumi watches him, bemused. Oikawa seems to be in a good mood today, lighter and more genuine although he had looked nervous earlier.

 _That makes two of us_ , Iwaizumi thinks.

Matsukawa suddenly stands next to him, Hanamaki following suit and grabbing the ball Iwaizumi had been holding.

“He’s in a suspicious mood today, isn’t he?” Hanamaki says, and Iwaizumi doesn’t need to look up at him to know he’s grinning.

“He’s okay,” Iwaizumi says.

Matsukawa sighs and then deliberately nudges Iwaizumi forward. Iwaizumi shoots him a glare.

“Agh, just go on and do it,” Matsukawa goads him. “I know you want to talk to him. We’re about to wrap up anyway, just go.”

“I can’t believe you’re just throwing me out like this,”

Hanamaki cackles and raises the ball in his hands threateningly.

“It’s duress or nothing, I guess,” he says.

“Very mature,” Iwaizumi notes.

“I’m flexible,” Hanamaki shrugs.

“ _Go,_ ” Matsukawa insists, waving him off, “we’ll keep the youngins out of the locker rooms for now with cleaning chores or whatever in case some smacking action happens.”

Iwaizumi looks at him blankly for exactly five seconds, unamused and proceeds to turn around and start walking off.

“I’m out of here.”

Matsukawa and Hanamaki bursts out laughing, Hanamaki actually cheering, “That was the point, Iwaizumi!”

Iwaizumi halts briefly and turns back to them halfway and against his better judgment, flips them off.

He walks off with their hoots of laughter in his ears and he smiles to himself despite everything.

 

Oikawa practically bolts out of his sweaty clothes and back to his uniform in the speed of light, mentally rehearsing his expression although he doesn’t know what the hell he’s going to begin talking to Iwaizumi about but he thinks _hey at least I don’t look bad in the process._

It’s probably the fastest he’s ever changed out of his clothes since on normal days, he takes the longest time and so when he finishes, he’s still alone.

He waits outside where he hears the crickets screeching and the full moon bathing everything in gray and silver (and a muted yellow? Suddenly, Oikawa’s not so sure) color but it’s comforting regardless. It’s cold out and he pulls his jacket closer to him.

Oikawa could see the lights from the gym from here although he can’t really hear them inside and so with a fairly stupid decision, he decides to sit on the railing, leaning precariously forward in hopes of hearing some sort of noise but when he can’t, he remains sitting there anyway.

He closes his eyes and he waits.

_It’s a nice night._

Iwaizumi scowls at the ground the entire time he walks out, wondering what Oikawa could be up to. He’ll think things over, he said. So it will be fair, he said and really, it’s making Iwaizumi’s stomach turn.

Is he mad at him? That’s probably Iwaizumi’s worst fear. Oikawa has every right to be mad after all since what Iwaizumi had kept all these years could probably count as betrayal and—

It’s really making his stomach turn.

Iwaizumi stops in his tracks, fists clenching. He doesn’t want Oikawa to hate him. Whatever will he do if that’ll happen? He didn’t _look_ like he hated Iwaizumi earlier didn’t he?

Iwaizumi doesn’t realize his palms are sweating until he’s slowly trudging up the stairs to the locker rooms. Overthinking does peculiar things to your line of thought and it’s ticking Iwaizumi off. He’s starting to think maybe Oikawa’s waiting for him in the middle of the hallway ready to ambush him with a stone to the head—he doesn’t know. Or maybe Oikawa’s about to jump off the railing but Iwaizumi’s sure he can’t possibly be that extra.

He turns around the corner, feeling better.

Oikawa is sitting on the railing, leaning forward and Iwaizumi’s heart shoots up his throat.

“OIKAWA!” Iwaizumi yells without thinking, lunging forward and his hands hover around Oikawa though not quite touching him, in a panic.

Oikawa, meanwhile looks pretty startled.

“Iwa-chan?!”

“What are you doing!” Iwaizumi is still yelling.

Oikawa looks baffled and he looks down on himself in confusion.

“Just…sitting here? I was waiting for you—”

“DON’T JUMP,”

Oikawa blinks, eyebrows rising and he finally gets what Iwaizumi’s getting at. He laughs, amused and he shakes his head.

“I’m not going to jump, silly!” Oikawa says, grinning. “I was just sitting here.”

Iwaizumi still frowns regardless.

“Get down from there,” he says.

Oikawa doesn’t want to end up quarreling with him again so he indulges him albeit feigning a discontented pout.

“Fine,” Oikawa says as he turns around to get down, Iwaizumi watching him carefully. “Better?”

Iwaizumi makes a soft noise of assent and Oikawa peers at him closer.

“Are you alright?” He asks him. Iwaizumi looks a bit flushed and seems as though he’s looking for words to say.

“I am, yeah,” Iwaizumi says. He sighs, sidling next to Oikawa and he leans on the railings with his back turned. “Sorry, you just startled me.”

Oikawa smiles. “What were you thinking?”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “Oh, shut up, Oikawa. I haven’t seen you in three days and you can’t possibly come back as More Annoying.”

Oikawa laughs, leaning back on his heels.

“That sounds like you. You _definitely_ missed me, at least.”

“You don’t…,” Iwaizumi almost winces when he says it, voice turning quiet, “hate me do you?

Oikawa freezes and he feels a twinge of sadness that he ever has to hear that. He doesn’t move closer but he does make a sound of disbelief.

“Hajime,” Oikawa says, “why would you even think that?”

Iwaizumi relaxes the tension he doesn’t realize that’s been on his shoulders.

“I…well, I had a feeling. I just thought,” he stammers.

Oikawa shakes his head, indignant. “No. No. That’s not it. I don’t,” he wrings his hands together, “I’m sorry for disappearing. I should’ve talked to you about it immediately but I’m okay now.”

Iwaizumi tilts his head. “Huh,”

Oikawa looked sidelong at him with a quick smile.

“Yeah,” and suddenly, he feels easy, “do you want to hear about it?”

Iwaizumi eyes him carefully before nodding.

“Okay,” Oikawa says. He leans against the railing too, facing the opposite direction so he can see the silvery moon and he feels Iwaizumi’s eyes trained on him.

He closes his own and remembers.

“When I was seven,” he begins and he sees it play out behind his eyelids, “we moved to this one town that was all unknown to me, because of my Dad’s work. I wasn’t as picky as a child as I am now so I didn’t actually mind moving.”

Oikawa laughs and continues, “When we settled, I found out we had these really nice next door neighbors and they seemed to like me a lot. Since I was used to that kind of attention I _loved_ it, you know all that seeking validation and stuff. I also knew for a fact that these neighbors had a kid my age but I never got to see him at first because he liked hanging out in the woods behind their house.” Oikawa cracks an eye open and he looks amused with himself. “Guess who?”

Iwaizumi is slightly bewildered to be hearing all this but Oikawa appears to be in a good mood so he doesn’t question it.

“I get it, smartass,” he sighs and Oikawa laughs, nodding.

He gets back to his story, “It just so happened that I wanted to introduce myself to that kid,” a smile, “I remember thinking I just had to and then he was there in the woods, his knee was bleeding—”—Iwaizumi scoffs at the memory, shaking his head—“—and he looked at me, he said…you said…”

_The sky turned blue, the leaves turned green and you are still the warmest brown I’ve ever seen._

Iwaizumi smiles crookedly. “I said you looked nice.”

Oikawa laughs with unabashed happiness.

“You did. You could give me more of those niceties you know.”

The corners of Iwaizumi’s mouth twitches.

“Perhaps I should.”

Oikawa nods approvingly and then looks solemn again. “I’m glad it all happened that way and in that order.”

A whole dam of emotions comes flooding out of Iwaizumi’s chest and he suddenly feels so warm that his vision can no longer part what’s monotone and colored. He wasn’t expecting things to go this way.

“Y-You’re not mad at me or anything?” He clarifies, just to be sure.

Oikawa smacks him playfully on the shoulder.

“I told you I’m not, jeez,” Oikawa says and starts to ramble, “if you remember so clearly a few days ago I’m in love with you and it’s not like that can change in three days flat—”

Iwaizumi is smiling, tugging the hem of Oikawa’s jacket and slowly pulls him closer as he continues babbling.

Oikawa lets himself be drawn closer, cheeks burning as words tumble off his mouth.

“—and I was practically running away because I felt I had a fault why you couldn’t tell me,” Oikawa says, “and if only I had started seeing long ago we wouldn’t have this problem—”

Iwaizumi scowls. “Tooru—”

Oikawa shakes his head sternly, “Shh, I know. I really did think so, though. But then this bespectacled friend told me to cut this shit out basically and to…,” he looks at Iwaizumi, affection making him giddy and his eyes crinkles when he smiles, “ _stop escaping._ I’m not escaping now.”

Oikawa reaches for him first, hands settling gently on Iwaizumi’s jaw. Iwaizumi’s scowl disappears and he feels contented just like this.

“That’s a good advice,” Iwaizumi comments and Oikawa laughs breathily.

“Yeah it is. I imagine things would’ve gone differently if you had told me back then,” Oikawa says softly, “and I think I like what we have now better.”

Iwaizumi doesn’t say anything in reply—he can’t say anything anyway since words have long died in his head so he lets his actions speak for him. He draws Oikawa closer, their foreheads touching and Oikawa swears he sees pleasant flashes of white the moment their lips meet.

And there’s no rush, just soft kisses, eyelashes fluttering against each other’s cheeks and feeling the other’s smile against their lips and Iwaizumi only wishes time could drag on longer so they can stay this way as long as they wanted.

They only break apart when they hear the other’s voices—Matsukawa and Hanamaki must have held them long enough.

“Ah,” Iwaizumi mumbles, looking towards the gym. “I still have to change. I should…,” he’s about to take a reluctant step backward when he feels Oikawa’s hands tighten on him, preventing him from going and Iwaizumi glances back to him, bewilderment turning into surprise when he sees that Oikawa’s staring at him in rapt concentration.

Iwaizumi’s eyebrows knit together in concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“I,” Oikawa begins but he doesn’t know how to continue.

 _Everything’s fine_ , he looks at his hands and they’re still black and white and gray. A look towards the gym and he sees all the same; the sky is still dark gray, the moon is still silver, but he looks back to Iwaizumi and the sleeves of his jacket—

Oikawa’s hands grasp on them.

“What’s going on?” Iwaizumi wants to know, confused as he watches Oikawa’s actions.

Oikawa traces the sudden vivid color on Iwaizumi’s jacket.

“This color,” he says.

“Blue?” Iwaizumi says, mystified.

“Blue,” Oikawa echoes in wonder, a smile slowly making its way on his face as his eyes catches on to the exterior wall of the locker room. _Blue…no,_ light _blue._

“Tooru,” Iwaizumi says, catching Oikawa’s attention when he sounds almost like he’s whining.

Oikawa always liked Iwaizumi’s eyes the best. They’ve always been a trick to the eye, the other one darker than the other. Oikawa can’t recall exactly when he started wearing those contacts and ponders now that he probably did when he figured out he started seeing.

They’ve always been beautiful. Even more so when he looks at them now and he sees them—whatever blue there is in green, he can see them and his heart feels like bursting.

“Is there blue in green in the color wheel?” It’s a miracle his voice did not crack, it already sounds so hushed.

Iwaizumi blinks. “Er, yeah. Blue and yellow makes green—Tooru, what are you…?”

Oikawa laughs, a bright and bubbly sound.

“Hold that thought because I see it,” he says, eyes shining excitedly.

Iwaizumi inhales sharply. “What?”

“I think I see it,” Oikawa tugs at Iwaizumi’s jacket again, just to be sure, “yep definitely still there.”

Oikawa looks as though he’s about to go off rambling again so before anything happens, Iwaizumi captures his face in his hands.

“What the hell do you see?” He demands.

Oikawa beams, “Blue. I can see blue. I see your blue.”

Iwaizumi thinks he probably exclaims in delight but then the both of them are and they probably look like idiots as Oikawa starts pointing out to random objects with excited babbles and really, Iwaizumi could care less about appearances at this point.

They hear footsteps coming and when they turn around, they both see Matsukawa and Hanamaki looking back at their grinning faces, quizzically. Behind them is the rest of the team, wondering what’s holding them up.

“What’s wrong with you both?” Hanamaki quizzes, tilting his head.

Oikawa smiles, his hand finding Iwaizumi’s own.

“Hmm? Nothing’s wrong,” he says in a singsong.

“Right.” Matsukawa says.

Iwaizumi’s happy smile doesn’t betray anything.

“We’re good,” and he feels Oikawa squeezing his hand in agreement.

 _They’re good_ and it’s going to be only that for a long, long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is finally here!!!! at last, at last it's doneeeeeeeee  
> i've been so [clenches fist] _heinously BUSY_ college is like you're on the bus and the bus is on fire bc you're in hell it's neverending  
>  thank you so so so much for being patient with this i know the delays were super intense lol
> 
> next chapter is actually more of an epilogue, a nice little extra if you will! it's been a hectic and fantastic year making this thank you for taking time to read! feedback is welcome ^^
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


	12. Niji

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **EPILOGUE**   
>  _END_
> 
> “Will you ever stop wearing your contacts?” Oikawa asks, voice soft and inquiring.  
> Iwaizumi bites his lip, thinking.  
> “That depends.”  
> Oikawa raises his eyebrows. “On?”  
> Iwaizumi’s voice drops to mimic the softness of his own voice.  
> “I wear them for you,” he says and there’s a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Niji** 虹  
>  _Rainbow_

“Come on, Iwa-chan, be nice! I really, _really_ , really want to see Makki’s new job! He works in a Spectrum facility you know? Near the university he and Mattsun are getting in soon? And I really, really—”

Iwaizumi is rubbing his temples as he listens to Oikawa ramble on about news circulating around Hanamaki’s life. He feels like he’s getting a headache. Definitely a headache.

He’s been focusing on his notes for a while now, tapping his pencil distractedly on his desk while Oikawa rolls around in his bed, surrounded by Iwaizumi’s books and muttering complaints every now and then.

And still not studying.

“He was really proud of it too when he told me,” Oikawa continues, an insistent background noise, “he was all like ‘I got a really cool job!’ like he’s telling me _I_ can’t get a job like that you Chrome-sighted get all the privilege I swear—”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, back still turned. _God he’s so obnoxious._

“So I said ‘hey! The facility I go to is way cooler! They have interactive color wheels!’ and of course he couldn’t live that down so he was like—”

Iwaizumi finally turns around, exasperated, and he finds Oikawa lying down on his back, still chattering away on his bed and idly flipping through pages of a book that’s _definitely_ not the one to be covered in their final exam.

“Tooru,” Iwaizumi says.

“—so I retaliated by saying his uniform sucks because he showed me a polka-dot bowtie? What is he a clown—?”

Iwaizumi has had it. He pushes back his chair and marches towards Oikawa who remains unperturbed and still yapping about how stingy Hanamaki can be. Oikawa doesn’t look up, not even when Iwaizumi hovers directly over his face, and almost chokes when he _does_ see him, glaring down at him—although he looks a little funny upside down.

“Stop being noisy and START STUDYING.” Iwaizumi says.

“I mean I was only hinting that we _should_ see Makki first so I can prove him wrong just a teeny tiny break—”

Iwaizumi frowns. “You’ve been on a break this entire time. You’re going to fail your finals, mark my words, and I’m not about to wait for you if you don’t graduate because of that.”

Oikawa gasps dramatically.

“I have never failed a test, Iwa-chan, for you to assume….I thought we were friends…”

Iwaizumi makes a face and he reaches down to pinch Oikawa’s nose, immediately getting a series of whiny complaints.

“Iwa-chan, let go!”

“Not until you open your book and start actually studying!”

“I am studying see? See? This is studying!” Oikawa points imperiously to the book he’s holding. The Book of Colors isn’t exactly academic material and though it _is_ educational, it’s not something he should be even remotely reading at the moment. This is too much. Suddenly Iwaizumi can see the future and it’s one where Oikawa has failed math.

Iwaizumi lets Oikawa go and covers his face with a hand testily. It’s time, unfortunately, for the last resort.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” Iwaizumi starts and Oikawa’s interest is immediately piqued. “You have to study first. Let’s try and not fail anything and _then_ we’ll go to Hanamaki’s workplace later on. Let’s check it out afterwards yeah? Maybe tomorrow. _When_ we’re done studying. It’s way out in the city, Tooru, think about it.”

Oikawa’s expression changes like clockwork and it’s fascinating to watch his nonchalant features into widening, shocked eyes as he swiftly gets up in bed and dives into his math book, the Book of Colors momentarily forgotten.

Iwaizumi watches him with guilty satisfaction, nodding to himself before returning to his own desk and he’s given 30 minutes of blessed quiet albeit with soft mumbling from Oikawa who’s now scribbling on paper.

30 minutes.

Once it gets _too_ silent all of a sudden sometimes you just think…suspicious.

Iwaizumi turns around so fast he almost gives himself whiplash and true enough he finds Oikawa twirling the colored pinwheel he gave to Iwaizumi a while back. He’s humming to himself, math book splayed on his chest and ignored.

Iwaizumi sighs. It’s okay. He’s calm, he understands this.

“Ah!” Oikawa mutters to himself, the pinwheel stilling in his hand as he matches the color to the cover of the math book on his chest. “Found it,” he says, grinning.

Iwaizumi can’t help a small smile as he watches. The book, a slightly dark shade of gray ( _green_ ) has Oikawa’s entire attention and when Iwaizumi catches Oikawa’s eye, he snorts when Oikawa jumps in a start.

“Iwa-chan! I’m—”

Iwaizumi waves a hand away. “Yeah, I have eyes.”  Oikawa gives him a smug smile. “Just because you can see a bit more than blue now doesn’t mean you can slack off.”

“Excuse you! I’ll have you know I’ve memorized two pages worth of Calculus formulas!”

Iwaizumi clears his throat. “Right. Yeah, I’m certain. How sure are you that you’re gonna remember it during exams though?”

“The trust in this relationship is lethal.”

Iwaizumi shrugs. “Just telling you like it is.”

Oikawa huffs and buries his face into his math book again, apparently going back to study.

“Huh, fine,” he says, “only because you’re pretty.”

Iwaizumi’s breath catches in his throat and he almost chokes but composes himself just in time. Oikawa is scribbling once more and humming to himself as he does. He’s taken to calling Iwaizumi _pretty_ unironically for the past few weeks now ever since his development of seeing the color green. It was staggering to Iwaizumi at first, unnerving even when Oikawa would stare at him and blurt it out at random, mostly because sometimes, Iwaizumi can’t tell if he’s just fooling around or not.

Oikawa peeks over his book as though he can read his mind and sends Iwaizumi a flirtatious wink.

Iwaizumi’s heart stutters.

“Stop fooling around.”

 

“Is it some kind of Spectrum facility thing to have weird, obnoxious statues outside the entrance?”

Iwaizumi elbows Oikawa in the gut, frowning despite Oikawa’s offended yelp.

“Don’t be rude,” Iwaizumi says.

He can understand what Oikawa means though. Oikawa’s currently scrutinizing the enormous bronze otter statue outside the facility. It _is_ pretty interesting to look at, the otter on its hind legs and one paw outstretched. It’s a little less obnoxious than Makulay Facility’s fish fountain.

The facility is larger than Makulay too, towering high to 10 floors up. The main entrance is fancy with the sign _Niji-no-Sono Spectrum Facility_ in fancy calligraphy and the landscape resembles a Japanese garden with varied shades of green and brown.

When they step inside though, Oikawa makes a soft noise of delight. In contrast to Makulay’s dominant shades of reds and oranges, Niji-no-Sono has the opposite, hyping up their blues, greens, and yellows. Iwaizumi can feel Oikawa’s bristling excitement through the vice-like grip he has on Iwaizumi’s arm.

Iwaizumi lets him of course, smiling to himself when Oikawa starts pointing at random. He’s lived for so long without color and Iwaizumi would never take the initial excitement from him.

This excitement however—much to Iwaizumi’s amusement—halts abruptly when they make it to the front desk and they see someone so unexpected that Oikawa backpedals in horror.

Ushijima doesn’t seem to share this terror much.

“Ah, Iwaizumi Hajime,” he nods to Iwaizumi who returns the gesture politely. “Oikawa Tooru.”

Oikawa makes a keening noise in the back of his throat, kind of like a boiling kettle. He doesn’t seem to realize it either. He shakes his head insistently, pulling on Iwaizumi’s arm with a sudden urgency.

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi steps in, sighing. Old rivalries are tiresome and they’re long over and he’s not about as petty as the person right next to him who’s stubbornly looking away. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Ushijima nods. “I work here.”

“…Right, yeah,” Iwaizumi clears his throat. “Hanamaki—you know Hanamaki right? He’s our teammate—he works here. We’re visiting.”

“Hmm,” Ushijima says. “Hanamaki Takahiro.”

“Th-That’s right.”

He points to his general left. “Hanamaki might be assisting guests in the lounge at the moment. He tells them which clinics to go to. You might find him there.”

Iwaizumi flashes him a grateful smile.

“Thanks a lot, Ushijima,” he bows his head and starts pulling Oikawa along with him. “Come on, you idiot— _stop that!_ ”

Oikawa sticks his tongue out at Ushijima who proceeds to look baffled. Iwaizumi elbows Oikawa yet again.

“Would you quit that? You’re such a menace.”

 

Hanamaki finds his job very fascinating. It’s constantly engaging and he has to move around often. Well that and the fact that he just gravitates to being nosy. His job makes him see a brighter picture and tells the number of stories he gets from the guests, all as interesting as the next. Hanamaki finds that people see Spectrum in infinitely many ways. He discovers that love arrives in many forms and seeing Spectrum isn’t always the endgame. Love doesn’t discriminate.

In his hand are two files from separate guests, one who had just come in recently and another who has been coming here for some time. Hanamaki tells them which clinics to go since Niji-no-Sono is bigger than most facilities and Swatcher clinics vary from degree of how immediate they’re needed.

(A walking information desk, the voice in Hanamaki’s head that strangely sounds like Oikawa, supplies.)

The more recent of the two is half-foreign, which proved to be their main hindrance because of the fact that they lived half their life in Russia though they’re definitely sure they met their soulmate in Japan. Some 8 years ago. They weren’t able to check in immediately because they lived in another country and gone through life as one who is Chrome-sighted but without a pair.

An _outlier_ , apparently, as he’s used to being called and it makes Hanamaki’s face crumple.

The other is an old guest, although Hanamaki, having just recently started, only got to see their profile now. This one has a picture tagged on the file, their story is oddly familiar. Can see Spectrum for 8 years now. Has been going to this facility since then. Unpaired.

Hanamaki looks around the lounge, trying to be discreet as he tries finding them. When he sees the light brown hair seated near the window, back turned to him, he looks away once he’s sure it’s them.

Having them in his hands feels like a big responsibility and it’s not entirely overwhelming so much as it’s nice. It’s a warm feeling. Niji-no-Sono doesn’t only try solving problems with the Sight after all, they try bringing people together.

Hanamaki clears his throat, bringing the intercom closer to him, his other hand tapping away on his desk.

“Haiba Lev?”

There’s a crash somewhere in the lounge, as though someone stood too quickly in haste and overturned a chair maybe, though Hanamaki doesn’t turn to look. He waits until someone comes up to his desk, quite literally looming.

Haiba Lev is a jittery thing, nervous and hesitant and so _obnoxiously_ tall it’s almost intimidating until Hanamaki remembers (or at least according to the file he just read) that Haiba Lev is younger than him for a good two years.

He looks sweaty, probably from the nervousness and he stands in front of Hanamaki, looking unsure. Hanamaki can tell he looks mature for his age although now, with his gray hair tousled around his head, he looks so much younger. He looks obviously foreign too and Hanamaki isn’t sure at first if he should just go for it in Japanese.

“You’re Haiba-kun?” Hanamaki asks in English anyway, to be sure.

He gets a nod and an answer in Japanese, “just Lev is fine.”

Hanamaki nods in return. “Right…well that is where my English ends I’m sorry to say. I’m Makki, I’ll assist you today.”

Lev looks relieved. “That’s okay. I can speak Japanese better than anything else anyway, Makki-san.”

Hanamaki flashes him a smile. “I tried my best,” he chuckles and gathers Lev’s file closer, “alright then. You’re here to get a petition to find your pair, that’s right?”

Lev swallows, scratching the back of his neck.

“That’s right. Though I’m not sure if this is still going to work since it’s been a long time I know I should’ve come years earlier—” Lev stops abruptly to catch his breath. “Sorry…I now I should’ve reached out to Spectrum facilities at least, there are a lot in Russia, but I know I just wasn’t going to find them there,”

Hanamaki breathes in deeply.

“Why are you here then if you think you’re not gonna find them?”

Lev blinks, fair eyebrows scrunching up as he thinks.

“Wishful thinking?”

Hanamaki smirks, amused.

“‘Wishful thinking’,” he repeats under his breath, chuckling. He slides Lev’s file towards him but doesn’t let go of it. “Hold on to that wishful thinking then. Your Swatcher is Dr. Madoka Yachi. She’s in the fifth floor, there are two hallways when you get there you take the right and it’s the fourth door.”

“Hnn—yeah alright, I got it.”

Lev starts taking his file away but Hanamaki pulls it back, just the slightest.

“Before that though,” Hanamaki continues. He hands the other file to Lev too and the latter looks at it in surprise. “It’s a nice suggestion to go introduce yourself to _that_ guy,” Hanamaki points towards the window, “the one with the light brown hair, back turned. The one looking out the window, yeah?”

Lev suddenly looks like he just swallowed a bag of ice, whipping around so fast, eyes bulging.

He’s looking towards the window then to Hanamaki, back and forth.

“Him? W-Wh—”

“His name,” Hanamaki carries on, “is Yaku Morisuke. He’s been coming here for years now so don’t think you’re the only one who’s waiting. I know you’ve been waiting for this to happen but in reality you need to work together to make something happen,” Hanamaki waves a hand to express vagueness. “Love at first sight can be as fictional as it gets but it’s gonna be okay.”

Lev is wringing his hands, nervous again but he nods, his eyes shining in anticipation.

Hanamaki laughs softly, reaches over and smacks Lev on the shoulder good-naturedly.

“Oh, and remember to breathe.”

Lev beams. “Thank you, Makki-san.”

Lev does a quick bow, clutching both his and his soulmate’s files to his chest before he runs off. Hanamaki watches him go from stuttered, doubtful steps to more confident strides until he’s right next to his pair.

_Yaku-san?_

Unsurprisingly, Yaku jumps in a start and Lev starts to introduce himself in rapid fire and in clipped, anxious phrases but as far as Hanamaki can see, they’re both brimming with exhilaration. Hope.

In moments like this, the universe doesn’t seem too bad to live in at all.

 

“ _MAKKI!_ ”

Hanamaki closes his eyes. This voice definitely did not come from his conscience this time. _Especially_ not when said voice comes barreling into a stop and slams their hands on his desk.

“You will _not_ believe who we saw in the front desk,” Oikawa cries in disbelief, right on Hanamaki’s desk.

Hanamaki quickly tries remembering whatever interesting thing they have on the front desk until he remembers who’s currently manning it at this hour.

He snorts. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Iwaizumi, thankfully, a sight of relief to Hanamaki’s eyes, comes forward and sighs. He glances at Oikawa and then to Hanamaki meaningfully, shrugging.

“What else is new, right?”

“Yeah well, I didn’t know what I was expecting.”

“Ushiwaka,” Oikawa hisses in all seriousness. “ _Ushiwaka_ is in the front desk!”

“I’m aware.”

Iwaizumi puts an arm around Oikawa and pulls him close, tired of this petulance.

“We’re here for Hanamaki, not for you to whine about rivalries that are long over.”

Hanamaki claps his hands. “Finally, a voice of reason.”

“And you,” Iwaizumi says, motioning his head to Hanamaki and then smiling with intent. He glimpses at the _Niji-no-Sono Spectrum Facility_ sign above Hanamaki’s desk and then to Hanamaki’s gray suit of a uniform.

Ah. Hanamaki knows that shit-eating grin and immediately he takes back his feeling of relief upon seeing Iwaizumi.

“It’s nice how you no longer look foolish.”

“EXCUSE YOU.”

Oikawa sniffs, still pouting but agreeing anyway.

“No, no, Iwa-chan is right,” that slow, sly smile. “You look all adult and mature now.” He flutters his eyelashes teasingly.

Hanamaki grabs a random folder underneath his desk and smacks them both right on the face and they both start snickering.

Hanamaki scowls at them. “I can’t believe this. Four years of friendship. You come into my workplace, disrespect me in my own desk—”

“Aw, Makki-chan, my days of teasing you are numbered before university and you always bully me anyway—”

“ANWAY,” Iwaizumi clears his throat, letting Oikawa go but not before laughing softly. “This is close to where you’re university is at, I heard?”

Hanamaki smiles proudly.

“Oh definitely. Aren’t I the luckiest to get a job here or what,”

Iwaizumi scoffs. “And Matsukawa…?”

This time though, the swell of pride isn’t for himself alone.

“He works around here too!” Hanamaki says, smugly. “Issei works at an ice cream shop around the block. We can go there later if you want—my shift ends in an hour.”

“Yes,” Oikawa says, eyes widening in glee. “ _Yes_ , Iwa-chan. Ice cream.”

“Yeah, yeah ice cream—ah,”

There’s a sudden ringing noise and Iwaizumi quickly fishes for his phone, squinting at the screen suspiciously and relaxes when he sees who it is.

“I, er have to take this,” he tells them. “It’s the landlord for our housing in university. I should…you know.”

Iwaizumi strides away with no further explanation, answering his phone and Oikawa looks on fondly.

Hanamaki, of course, waggles his eyebrows at him.

“For your housing huh?” He teases. “Really going on ahead and eloping aren’t you?”

Oikawa turns into a pleasant, blotchy shade of pink, reaching over and smacking Hanamaki upside the head as he squeals.

“Shuttup! Like you and Mattsun are any better!”

Hanamaki snorts.

“Hanamaki,”

A voice so much deeper announces behind Oikawa and Oikawa automatically freezes. Hanamaki, meanwhile, merely looks up nonchalantly, already amused by Oikawa’s stricken expression.

“What is it, Ushijima?”

Ushijima steps around Oikawa, looking unsure. “I need help with something.”

Hanamaki blinks, puts his hand on his chest dramatically.

“ _You_ need help with something?”

Ushijima nods. “Someone is crying in the front desk and I don’t understand what they want or how I can help them.”

Ah, jesus.

“Probably made them cry, didn’t you,” Oikawa hisses under his breath, slinking into himself with a look of hostility.

When Ushijima turns to him, he actually looks surprised.

“Oikawa Tooru. You’re still here.”

“OKAY,” Hanamaki declares, grabbing the back of Oikawa’s collar before he can pounce on the other. “I’ll go check it out. As for you,” he glares at Oikawa pointedly and the latter sticks his tongue out at him in annoyance, “stay here and wait for your husband or whatever, alright?”

Oikawa crosses his arms over his chest, huffing.

“I can take care of myself, Makki. Go do your thing, I’ll wait for Iwa-chan here.”

Hanamaki grins in satisfaction.

“I love it when we all get along.”

 

**Sent [10:27 am]**

_Mattsun_

:D

 

Matsukawa’s eyebrow twitches as he stares at his phone.

 

**Sent [10:27 am]**

_Captain_

Just one day of peace that’s all I ask.

 

**Sent [10:28 am]**

_Mattsun_

> where’s the fun in that?

> btw

> guess where we are ;D

 

**Sent [10:29 am]**

_Captain_

Listen I’m busy. I have a job. Unlike some people.

 

**Sent [10:30 am]**

_Mattsun_

> makki’s workplace! ^^

> guess where we’re going later :)

 

**Sent [10:33 am]**

_Captain_

Oh. Ah shit alright come on over.

 

**Sent [10:31 am]**

_Mattsun_

:)

 

Oikawa cackles triumphantly, leaning on Hanamaki’s desk as he starts twirling his phone in his hand. Iwaizumi’s been gone for a bit now and he’s starting to wonder how that’s going. It was a mutual decision for them both after all, going to university together. Living together.

( _You won’t get sick of me, though, right?_

Iwaizumi had rolled his eyes, as you do. _I would already have been._ )

Then a soft, uncertain voice.

“Oikawa-san?”

Oikawa swears he’s heard that voice before and he’s not sure what to expect when he turns around to face them. When he does though, and sees the girl looking up at him with bright eyes and slightly uncertain expression, Oikawa feels like he’s been thrust back into the past.

He straightens up, snapping a finger.

“Ah, wait, hold on,” he gasps, scrunching his forehead as he immediately tries zeroing in on a name. “Hotaru!” Oikawa laughs. “Ayano Hotaru-chan…right?”

Hotaru— _the_ Ayano Hotaru who actually stopped going to class at the start of the year—laughs, surprised and pleased he managed to remember.

“Wow,” she says, “I didn’t think you were going to remember, you know.”

Oikawa tilts his head. “But you remembered me.”

Ayano laughs. “You’re hardly forgettable, though.

She doesn’t look any different from when Oikawa met her before. Still the same soft, chiming voice, her hair still the same shade of gray (though Oikawa swears if he looks harder…maybe not at all gray after all) but shorter now and only up to her shoulders.

Her eyes are still bright, smiling and glad to have found an old acquaintance.

Oikawa chuckles. “Right. That’s equally good or bad, I guess.” This makes Ayano laugh and he continues, “How have you been? It’s been a long time.”

Ayano bites her lip, thinking before saying, “I’ve been alright. It’s been a weird few months for me but I’m doing okay now.”

Oikawa smiles. _How ironic,_ he things, _so do I._

Ayano grasps at her elbow, sheepish. “I transferred at the start of the year and I think everyone knows by now why though they might be all assumptions and gossip,” Oikawa raises his eyebrows and she laughs softly. “It’s not at all deep. I saw Spectrum and I couldn’t find my pair. This was the closest Spectrum facility from…where I live anyway and it’s quite away from school so I transferred. Just for convenience.” She chuckles again, this time a bit embarrassed.

Oh. _Oh_. Oikawa doesn’t know what he expected. He’s been through so much misunderstanding it’s both surprising and unsurprising to hear Ayano’s explanation after all this time. The shock probably shows because Ayano looks amused.

“Too shallow, right?” She jokes.

Oikawa shakes his head. “Not at all, really. It makes sense, at least,” he releases a breath. “Did it work? Coming here?”

Ayano looks positively happy now.

“So much. I’m better now. Help comes a long way.”

“You’ve met your pair?”

Eyes twinkling. “It’s a very small world if you really think about it.”

Oikawa laughs. The joy is infectious.

“I’m happy to hear that, then.”

Ayano points to the sign above Hanamaki’s desk and looks at Oikawa curiously.

“What about you…are you….?”

Oikawa shakes his head. “Uh, no, no. Not here at least! Somewhere closer.”

“Oh! Then that means—”

“Oi, Tooru,” Iwaizumi comes walking in, not looking up from his phone. “The housing gave us the OK so you should really pull yourself togeth—oh. Oh. I-I’m sorry.”

Iwaizumi stiffens, standing behind Oikawa when he realizes he just cut in on a conversation.

Ayano laughs, delighted to see the other there.

“You’re here too!”

It takes a second for it to sink in and Iwaizumi moves forward in surprise.

“Ayano-san!” He exclaims and Oikawa has to pull him back, snorting. “Wow, okay you’re here I didn’t…wow it’s good to see you again.”

“You’re both here, huh?” Ayano looks at Oikawa’s bright eyes to Iwaizumi’s mismatched ones and suddenly, she remembers herself in Aoba Johsai and in class, she doesn’t think she has ever seen them both separately and…Ayano isn’t sure herself but she finds herself smiling.

Somewhere closer, Oikawa had said. It’s nice they’ve found each other.

Ayano giggles. “I’m glad I saw you both again. We didn’t really have the time to talk back then except for that one time.”

“Well we know you’re here now and our friend works here so I guess we’ll see each other more often,” Oikawa grins.

Ayano tilts her head. “Your friend?”

“That would probably be me,”

Hanamaki takes his time to get back to his desk, walking around it and sitting down, arranging himself once more until he looks remotely professional again. He smiles wide at Ayano who looks back at him in amused bewilderment.

“God,” Hanamaki mumbles. “Ushijima is too much of a softy, how anyone can be mad at him for a long period of time is baffling.” He scoffs before finally meeting Ayano’s gaze. “Hellooo, check up?”

Ayano grins. “Yes. My Swatcher is Dr. Takeda.”

“Right. You’re an old guest. You can go on up.”

“Thank you, Hanamaki-kun,” she bows, then to Iwaizumi and Oikawa too, still smiling. “It’s nice to see you again. I have to go now, I’ll see you around!”

Iwaizumi is looking on dazedly so Oikawa steps in.

“Sure!” He supplies gamely. “See you around!”

The moment Ayano is out of sight, Iwaizumi seems to come back to his senses.

“That was…That was her, really,” he mumbles and Oikawa laughs at him, nudging his side.

“Yeah, can you believe it?”

“Well, _I_ can’t believe you both have plenty of friends to go around apparently,” Hanamaki says easily.

“She’s from school you know!” Oikawa tells him. “Or at least, used to.”

Hanamaki shrugs. “Oh, I knew that. I don’t know her much since I just worked here. Small world.”

Iwaizumi, on instinct, reaches out and holds Oikawa’s hand and squeezes.

“Yeah,” he says, “small world.”

“Ah, I’m free now,” Hanamaki says, like an afterthought. “Shall we go bother Issei?”

Oikawa’s smile is wide, happy and he squeezes Iwaizumi’s hand in return.

“Shall we?”

 

Oikawa is both delighted and surprised though, when they get to Matsukawa’s workplace after waiting for Hanamaki to change out of his uniform.

“It’s so…” Iwaizumi begins tentatively as they’re standing in front of the ice cream shop.

“Uhuh,” Hanamaki says, typing speedily on his phone.

Oikawa raises his hands ecstatically.

“Is this pink? Is this pink?!” He’s been bobbing in place excitedly and Iwaizumi huffs distractedly.

The shop is so stereotypically out of a storybook ice cream shop, the sign above right next to a cartoonish ice cream cone in 3D. It’s a splash of various shades of gray (pastel colors, and it’s not at all overwhelming) although very pleasing to the eyes and very homely. There are a number of seats inside though even more out and those are shielded from the sun by enormous rainbow umbrellas.

Matsukawa comes out of the shop to greet them, an equally light gray (pink) apron tied around his waist and he looks at them smugly. If Iwaizumi were to be honest of course, Matsukawa looks pointedly out of place with his messy dark hair and smug expression looking almost sinister.

Hanamaki shoves his phone in his pocket and proceeds to hurl himself towards his soulmate with no shame.

“ISSEI,”

Matsukawa catches him effortlessly and Hanamaki starts to talk about his day the moment he’s upright again.

Oikawa turns to Iwaizumi, pouting.

“Why don’t you love me like that?”

“I love how you casually forget I do that _every single time_ ,”

After a while, Matsukawa demands they better buy some damn ice cream because he’s not very thrilled at the prospect of being fired because of his overly enthusiastic friends coming over for a visit.

Oikawa goes on to buy at least four flavors before announcing a table outside to be theirs while Iwaizumi silently follows, indulging him as he does. Hanamaki doesn’t join them, instead hanging around where Matsukawa is back inside and keeping their flirting to themselves.

Under the rainbow umbrella that rotates, they quickly find out, Oikawa momentarily forgets his ice cream as he stares at it, mesmerized. He glances at Iwaizumi, eyes pleading.

Iwaizumi sighs, knowing what it means.

“Is this some sort of game to you? Me asking you what color?”

Oikawa shrugs, digging into his dessert again.

“Sure. It’s a fun game, I like it.”

“People usually get annoyed when they’re asked what color.”

Oikawa bursts out laughing.

“But Iwa-chan I never get annoyed if it’s you. At least…most of the time, but you know what I mean.”

“You jerk.”

Oikawa beams.

“Come on, Iwa-chan, you love me~”

“Agh, fine,” Iwaizumi points at a random strip of color. _Orange._ “What color then?”

Oikawa’s face crumples delicately. He’s always had a hard time with warm colors; they tend to be close in hue and sometimes look exactly the same in grayscale. He has no problem being vocal about this hardship however.

“Eh, Iwa-chan, this is hard, this is one of the hard ones. That’s either red or orange there’s no in between.”

“You kind of suck at this.”

“That’s not fair you know I can’t see—” Whining.

“You got it right though, it’s orange.” Iwaizumi smirks teasingly.

Oikawa nods earnestly. “Right, got it. Orange.”

Iwaizumi starts to recite it for him—red is darker than orange, red-violet even darker than red, and violet follows. Red-orange is light, orange even more, and yellow is brighter.

Oikawa watches him fondly as he speaks, pointing at the rotating umbrella and Oikawa smiles affectionately, stirring his spoon into his ice cream.

Iwaizumi glances at him now and again to make sure he’s still listening and Oikawa can’t help but notice his mismatched eyes, the green of it that Oikawa can see so well and the black that’s a complete opposite.

He’s always seen Iwaizumi wearing them, only ever removing them during the days they fought but Iwaizumi has never removed them since and Oikawa wonders if he’s simply attached to them.

He only barely notices that Iwaizumi has stopped talking and is looking at him suspiciously.

“Why are you staring?”

Oikawa smiles. “Because you’re really pretty.”

This catches him off guard, something so cute to watch, even more so when Iwaizumi’s cheek darkens just a bit.

“Ah, stop that,” Iwaizumi splutters, flustered.

“Will you ever stop wearing your contacts?” Oikawa asks, voice soft and inquiring.

Iwaizumi bites his lip, thinking.

“That depends.”

Oikawa raises his eyebrows. “On?”

Iwaizumi’s voice drops to mimic the softness of his own voice.

“I wear them for you,” he says and there’s a smile on his face. He adds as an afterthought, “not that I’m pressuring you, of course.”

Oikawa straightens immediately, surprised.

“What? Me? Why?”

Iwaizumi is silent for a moment, clearly hesitating still and he rubs the back of his neck.

“Well…so I can see what you can see. So it’s not unfair. So you don’t feel like you’re the only one going through it. It’s not a very hard decision. Also, are you gonna finish your ice cream or not? It’s melting all over the table—”

Oikawa’s hand moves by itself, reaching out to hold Iwaizumi’s own tight as he reels on the inside.

 _For you._ Like Tsukishima and his tinted eyeglasses so he can see with Yamaguchi better. Like Kenma, though he’s removed his contacts by now since Kuroo can see Spectrum now.

Iwaizumi is frowning at Oikawa’s hand though.

“Ack, your hand is sticky—”

Oikawa feels warm and he giggles as he holds tighter.

“Iwa-chan,”

Iwaizumi looks up at him, surprised by the sudden intensity and Oikawa stands, leans forward.

Iwaizumi’s hand rests on Oikawa’s cheek and his lips taste like strawberry and blueberry but his smile tastes like yellow and red and the orange he still can’t see.

“You’re too good for me,” Oikawa says fondly.

Iwaizumi laughs. “You’d best believe that.”

“Hey!”

But they’re both laughing, it’s a nice note, eyes shining with affection. The weather is warm, the wind is nice and blowing softly, showing signs of spring coming once again. Inside the shop, they can hear Hanamaki’s laughter and the comfortable noise of chatter.

Oikawa has Iwaizumi in his hand and for a while, he never lets go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i always want to end things where everyone gets closure you know? it's very satisfying in my part uwu
> 
> many thanks to my friends hina (@asterbells) and kira (@symphoniees) u da real MVP
> 
> first of all, i just want to say thank you for putting up with my work all this time despite the lousy updates bc of my schedule ahahha... thank you very, very much for reading! it's been such a long, long ride and it was both fun and stressful lmao. i'm not about to let go of this au yet however since i've been planning for ages to write side stories to this (which lbr will take eons again) and i hope you'll read them too! 
> 
> to be honest i got a lot of my inspiration from the book Shades of Grey (not the 50 kind just Shades of Grey) by Jasper Fforde and i got terms there like Swatcher/Spectrum/the color wheels/etc. it's a good read, if not a little eccentric though you should give it a try!
> 
> thank you once again and feedback is always welcome! ^^
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/crossbelladonna) | [tumblr](http://crossbelladonna.tumblr.com/)


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